
flass\..."R \lo2)'^ 
Book rR4_, 



' J21. 

1 



THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 



THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 



By 



G. VERNON BENNETT, A.M., J.D. 

City Superintendent of Schools, Pomona, CaJ. 
Lecturer in Education, University of Southern California. 




Baltimore 

WARWICK & YORK, Inc. 

1919 






Copyright, 1919 
By WARWICK A YORK, Inc. 



WHSFERR 

WW ■ »£ 






PREFACE 

The author is frank to admit that this book is not a com- 
plete treatise on the junior high school. To write such a 
treatise there would have to be available a vast mass of facts, 
statistics, and experimental data about the subject.^ The 
junior high school is too new an institution to have had time 
and opportunity for the accumulation of such scientific ma- 
terial. There has been an insistent demand for a reorganiza- 
tion of our school system. It did not seem as if those de- 
mands could be met under the 8-4 plan of grouping grades. 
There arose — in response to the demand — a new institution, 
the junior high school, created to carry out the reorgan- 
ization. 

It was not as if an old institution had been asked to do 
new work. Not at all. It was pretty well decided before- 
hand what was needed to be done. The problem was, can 
the present organizations do the things needed ? Some edu- 
cators said, yes. Others said, no, and proceeded to create a 
new school to do the work. Since then Professor Johnston's 
statement that "the junior high school movement is sweep- 
ing the country" has become literally true. 

There have been some precedents in Europe and in this 
country for the creation of this school. These fore-runners 
are briefly described by the author. It is not pretended, how- 
ever, that these were real junior high schools. 

This book is put forth as a guide for the study of the 
junior high school movement. It is full of suggestions, full 
of arguments, full of enthusiastic hopes. It is put forth as 
a pathfinder. The author has necessarily drawn largely on 
his personal observations in his own schools at 'Pomona ; but 



VIII THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

he has also had the pleasure of visiting the junior high 
schools in Los Angeles, Berkeley, Detroit, Houston, and Salt 
Lake City. 

The author wishes to thank the many superintendents who 
have responded to his requests for information. He wishes 
especially to thank Dr. David P. Barrows, formerly Dean of 
the Faculties of the University of California, now Major, 
Chief of the Intelligence Department, Philippine Islands,' 
and 'Prof. E. E. Lewis and Prof. T. H. Briggs, of Teachers' 
College, Columbia, for valuable suggestions, criticism and 
inspiration. For faults in the book the author wishes himself 
solely and alone to be held responsible. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

Page 

Chapter One — The Problems and the Solution i 

i. Definition of junior high school I 

2. The problems 3 

A. Leakage from school 3 

B. Selecting the wrong vocation 4 

C. Delayed entrance into skilled vocations 5 

D. Evils growing out of adolescence 6 

3. Preventing leakage by the junior high school 7 

4. Vocation selection through the junior high school 14 

5. Shortening the preparation for skilled occupations 17 

6. Adapting education to the needs of adolescence 20 

A. Education of boys 20 

B. Education of girls 23 

Chapter Two — History oe the Movement 26 

1. Foreign systems 26 

2. Various plans of grouping grades 29 

3. Supt. Bunker and the Berkeley plan ^Z 

4. The Los Angeles plan 35 

5. Work of the National Education Association 36 

6. The junior high school throughout the country 38 

7. Varying plans in operation 40 

Chapter Three— Objections to Junior High School Answered 43 

1. The same results obtainable under the old plan 43 

2. Greater distance of pupils from school 46 

3. Unfavorable effect upon elementary teachers. 48 

4. Difficulty of obtaining college-trained teachers 50 

5. Difficulty of inducing ninth grade pupils to attend junior 
high school 53 

6. Additional expense for buildings, grounds, and equipment 54 

7. Conservatism of the public 56 

Chapter Four — Effect of the Junior High School Movement 

Upon the Elementary Grades 58 

1. Foundational subjects covered in grades I-VI 58 

2. Kindergarten preparation required 60 

3. School attendance better enforced 62 

4. An all-year session 64 

5. Excellent teachers employed 66 

6. Teaching how to study . . . .- 68 

ix 



X THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

Page 

7. Specific changes in the elementary courses 70 

8. Non-essentials in particular subjects eliminated 73 

Summary 74 

Chapter Five — Courses oe Study 76 

1. Preliminary considerations yy 

2. Physical education 80 

3. Manual and sense training 84 

4. English 86 

5. Foreign languages 90 

6. Mathematics 92 

Chapter Six — Courses of Study, continued 96 

1. History and politics 96 

2. The sciences 08 

3. Culture subjects 101 

4. Vocational subjects 108 

Chapter Seven — Principal and Teachers 114 

1. Manning the junior high school 114 

2. The principal 115 

3. The teachers 117 

4. College-trained vs. normal-trained teachers 118 

5. A teachers college for junior high school teachers 120 

6. An organization of junior high school teachers 123 

7. Literature on the junior high school 125 

8. Pleads of departments 128 

Chapter Eight — Teaching in Junior High Schooe 131 

1. Aims and purposes 131 

2. The teacher 132 

3. The class-room 135 

4. High school textbooks not adapted to junior high school. . 138 

5. Certain qualities developed in pupils 141 

A. Acquisition of habits of industry 141 

B. Development of sense perception 142 

C. Acquisition of motor skill 142 

D. Health and development 143 

E. Acquisition of information 143 

F. Reasoning, retentiveness, alertness 144 

G. Skill in expression 145 



TABLE OF CONTENTS XI 

Page 

H. A liking for wholesome pleasures 145 

I. Purposefulness 145 

6. The method of the recitation period 146 

Chapter Nine — Administration of the Junior High Schooe 150 

1. The faculty 150 

2. Supervision 152 

3. Organization of the schedule 154 

4. Clerical work 155 

5. Student organizations and activities 158 

6. Accessories of teaching 160 

7. School interruptions and exercises 162 

8. Moral guidance 164 

Chapter Ten— Relation to Senior High and Junior CoeeEge 167 

1. The senior high school and the tenth grade 167 

2. The upper secondary school's tendency to become 
college-like 168 

3. Nature of the people's college 170 

4. Effect of the people's college upon the junior high school 
curriculum 174 

5. Effect of the people's college upon the junior high schools 

in cities 175 

6. Relation of people's college to junior high schools, 
outside of cities 177 

Chapter EeEven — An Ideae Junior High Schooe 181 

1. The city 181 

2. Board of education 182 

3. The superintendent 183 

4. The grounds 185 

5. The pupils 186 

6. The buildings 187 

7. Accessories of teaching 188 

8. The faculty 189 

9. Conclusion : Results 191 

Appendix. Junior High Schooe Courses of Study 195 

Bibliography 208 



CHAPTER ONE) 

THE PROBLEMS AND THE SOLUTION 

1. Definition of Junior High School and Outline of 
the Subject: A junior high school in the fullest sense in 
which it is commonly used has the following characteristics : 
\ ($) It is a separate educational institution, with a dis- 
tinct organization and corps of officers and teachers. 
; (b) It embraces the seventh, eighth and ninth grades (or 
years of work) and sometimes the tenth. 
^ (c) It has a curriculum in the seventh and eighth 
grades enriched by the presence of several high school sub- 
jects or by the broadening, culturizing or vocationalizing of 
the so-called common branches. 

(d) It promotes by subject even in the seventh and 
eighth grades. f 

(e) It permits and encourages a differentiation of courses 
for the different pupils. 

It is with the above meaning that the term will be used 
in this book. Many schools that fall short of all these char- 
acteristics by one point are called junior high schools. But 
in practically all cities where the movement for establishing 
these schools has gotten well under way, the ideal toward 
which the authorities are working embraces all of these 
points. 

In California the term originally used was "intermediate 
high school," later shortened to "intermediate school," but 
the term "junior high school" is rapidly supplanting the 
others. In New York City the "intermediate school" is not 
properly a secondary school, although it is tending to become 
such. 

I 



2 THE) junior high school, 

The reader must bear in mind that the junior high school 
movement is so new and is undergoing so many modifica- 
tions and improvements that what is true of it this year 
may fall far short of the truth next year. 

The subject of the junior high school will be treated 
first as an educational movement, and second as an institu- 
tion. In the first division we shall treat, in this chapter, the 
causes leading to the birth of the movement; in the second 
chapter, the history of the movement; in the third chapter, 
the objections raised to the creation of a junior high school; 
in the fourth chapter, the ascertained and prospective effects 
of the movemlent upon the elementary school. 

In the second division — the school as an institution — we 
shall devote chapters v and vi to the curriculum and 
courses of study; chapter vii to the preparation, selection 
and organization of faculties ; chapter vm to problems of 
teaching; chapter ix to administration; chapter x to the 
rrelation of the junior high school as an institution to the 
senior high school ; and chapter xi to the author's conception 
of an ideal environment, housing, equipment, and officering 
cof a junior high school. 

In this chapter we shall take up the causes that produced 
the junior high school movement. We shall find that society 
has made certain demands on the public schools with which 
the school system found it impossible under the 8-4 organ- 
ization successfully to cope. The junior high school came 
into existence to meet these demands. The four most 
important demands were : ( 1 ) That the enormous leakage 
from school in the seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth grades 
cease; (2) That an effort be made to destroy the influences 
of schools which tend to send young men and women into 
unsuitable and worthless vocations and that a positive effort 
(be made to guide them into suitable and worthy occupa- 



THE PROBLEM OF THE SOLUTION 3 

tions; (3) That the modern tendency to lengthen the period 
of preparation for skilled vocations be checked and some 
method be found for shortening" the period so that men may 
become self-supporting and society-supporting at an earlier 
age; and, finally (4) That the school system check the 
physical, mental and moral evils that accompany and grow 
out of adolescence. 

After showing how bad were the conditions that caused 
these demands to be made, we shall proceed to explain how 
these demands are being met by the junior high school. 

2. The Problems. A. Leakage in the seventh and 
eighth grades and in high school. The records in Los 
Angeles City, where compulsory attendance is more strictly 
enforced than in most cities, show that in the years 1896 to 
191 1, inclusive, there was an average dropping out, as fol- 
lows : From the fifth grade, 18 per cent of those registered 
in that grade; from the sixth grade, 20 per cent; from the 
seventh, 30 per cent; from the eighth, 17 per cent. As the 
eighth was the last grade &i the elementary school, the 
dropping out after graduation would greatly increase the 
percentage above the 17 per cent here recorded. The law 
required children to attend school up to the fifteenth birth- 
day; but there was a large number of Mexican children who 
reached that age in the fifth 'and sixth grades. The statistics 
of Los Angeles do not show how many dropped out at the 
end of the eighth grade; but in Grand Rapids 24 per cent 
of eighth-grade graduates failed to enter the ninth grade, 
and in Evansville, Indiana, 44 per cent. In the Franklin 
School of Berkeley, California, 59 per cent of eighth-grade 
graduates did not enter high school. 

Thorndike's statistics show that for the country in gen- 
eral, out of every 100 pupils finishing the sixth grade only 



4 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

79 finish the seventh and only 59 finish the eighth. Ayres' 
figures show 79 and 57, respectively. 

As to leakage in high school, the record in Cincinnati 
showed that of the 1766 pupils enrolled in the ninth grade 
in 1912-13, only 1128 enrolled in the tenth grade the next 
year, and 714 in the eleventh grade in the following year. 
This shows a loss of 36.1 per cent the first year and 23.5 
per cent the second year. The leakage in the tenth grade, 
however, was 36.7 per cent of those that entered it. The 
statistics of Los Angeles from 1896 to 191 1 show that 54 
per cent of those who entered the high school dropped out 
before the end of the first year; and of those who remained 
to take up the tenth grade, 45 per cent dropped out before 
the end of the year. The Minneapolis report showed similar 
results. 

Thorndike's figures for the entire country show that 
between the end of the eighth year and the end of the ninth, 
out of every 100 pupils 33 dropped out, and during the next 
year 25 more dropped out. Ayres' statistics show that out 
,of every 100 graduates of the eighth grade 22 dropped out 
;inthe ninth grade and 42 in the tenth. While these accounts 
differ in detail, in final result they agree that about 60 per 
cent of elemlentary-school graduates fail to reach the third 
year of high school. 

B. Selecting the wrong vocation in life. Another 
social problem that presses for solution is that of getting 
each person into the occupation that will serve best his own 
interests and those of society. The good of both the indi- 
vidual and of society requires that boys and girls find at a 
reasonably early age the vocation for which they are best 
adapted and that all preparation possible be made for that 
.occupation. 

There is a large number of failures in business attributable 



THE PROBLEMS AND THE SOLUTION 5 

to the unfitness of the employer and the employees for 
carrying on that business. In 1915 there were 22,156 such 
business failures in this country. There are other contribu- 
tory causes, of course, but unfitness stands out as a principal 
one. The vast armies of idle poor that hang about city 
employment offices testify to the failures in fitting for the 
right employment. Competent authorities state that a large 
proportion of men change their occupations two or three 
times before they get into the right ones. If a man does not 
decide upon his vocation until he reaches twenty-five or 
thirty years of age, he has only natural aptitude to rely on ; 
he has not time then to prepare himself adequately for an 
occupation. 

Not only is the misfit unsuccessful in the occupation into 
which he is driven, but he finds it irksome. He is unhappy 
in his work. This unhappiness and poor remuneration affect 
his family relationship, disturbing its equilibrium and bring- 
ing about pessimism and distress. Society also finds itself 
cheated out of what it expects and demands of each indi- 
vidual. It may even have to support the individual or his 
family and is thereby burdened with pathological and cura- 
tive measures — a condition that prevents the carrying out 
of its creative and developmental program. Society feels 
the loss of such a man's monetary contribution to its 
progress. 

C. Delayed entrance into skilled vocations. We 
hear in these days a constant complaint of the system of 
schooling that prevents young men from getting started in 
their professions or occupations until late in their twenties. 
With twelve years for public education, four for college, 
and three for professional training in the university, a man 
finds himself ready to begin work at twenty-five years of 
age if he has been fortunate. If, however, he failed to pass 



6 TH£ JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

some lower grade; if his parents moved from one state to 
another, or from one city to another, entailing a loss of a 
grade; if he did not enter school until he was seven years 
old; or if sickness or other causes interrupted his steady 
advance in school, he will not finish his university work until 
he is twenty-six or twenty-seven. It takes so long to get a 
start in the professions or in business, that often he is well 
past thirty before he finds himself self-supporting. All 
these things tend to delay marriage to middle age, and 
sometimes entirely prevent it. If, by misfortune, the young 
man should marry in his early twenties, he is condemned to 
such cruel privations and struggles that his chances for suc- 
cess are slim. 

This is true not only in the professions, but equally so in 
many lines of agriculture. Orchards require several years 
to mature, and farms cannot be stocked short of three or 
four years. If the young man has neither the land nor the 
capital to start farming as soon as he is graduated from the 
university, he will find that he must wait several years 
longer before his education will yield him any permanent 
income. Most young men, foreseeing this long delay, go- 
directly into agriculture without taking a university course 
at all. 

D. Evils growing out of adolescence. These are of 
three kinds though closely inter-related. The physical evils 
result from (a) arrested development, caused by some 
disease, from overstudy, fright, etc.; (b) perverted sex 
habits, as self-abuse; (c) habits arising out of the adoles- 
cent's sudden induction into manhood which gives him the 
adult's desires and freedom to satisfy them but not the 
adult's restraining will power, such as the habit of keeping 
late hours, smoking, chewing tobacco, drinking liquor, eat- 
ing rapidly, and choosing irregular diet; (d) a reaching and 



THE PROBLEMS AND THE SOLUTION J 

straining" to do things that their elders do, without proper 
judgment, such as running endurance races; and (e) im- 
proper actions by girls at delicate bodily periods and neglect 
of bodily needs through a prudish sense of modesty. 

There are several mental evils that grow out of adoles- 
cence : (a) Arrested mental development caused by the 
physical changes incident to adolescence or caused by worry 
over those changes; (b) mental weakness caused by exces- 
sive indulgence in sex thoughts and habits; (c) habits aris- 
ing out of the adolescent's sudden induction into manhood 
which gives him freedom to do much as he pleases, such 
habits as idleness, irregularity in work, fickleness, weakness 
of will; (d) mental stagnation resulting from the youth's 
leaving school and entering unskilled work; (e) the "big- 
head," contempt for the opinions of others, unwillingness to 
learn, a feeling of "knowing it all." 

The moral evils are more definite and far-reaching. Many 
writers insist that they are actually worse now than ever 
before and are steadily getting worse. The following are 
some of those moral evils arising directly from adolescence : 
(a) Lying to parents and weaving webs of deceit; (b) dis- 
obedience to parents and general outlawry against the 
home; (c) playing "hookey" from school, cutting classes, 
chafing against restraints of any kind; (d) habits arising 
out of the freedom and independence that come with adoles- 
cence, such as the reading of trashy novels, frequenting bad 
moving picture houses, smoking, gambling, drinking, stay- 
ing out late at night, indulging in excessive social affairs, 
stealing to meet the unusual need for spending money; (e) 
perverted sex habits (ranging from mere "looseness" of 
actions to downright "shamelessness"). 

3. Preventing Leakage by the junior high school. 
The leakage in the seventh and eighth grades is attributed 
to several causes, of which dislike for school as taught under 



8 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

the old plan is the principal one. This dislike for school 
arose from the fact that the pupils were tired of going over 
and over the common-school studies, that they disliked to 
associate with the little children who had no community of 
interest with them, and that they wanted some real, telling 
work to do, work which was to be found only outside the 
walls of school. There were, of course, other contributing 
causes. Many children had to go to work to help support 
their families, and they felt that the longer they stayed in 
the old-time school the less lit they were for taking the 
small jobs which children can readily secure. 

This leakage in the seventh and eighth grades the junior 
high schools were organized to check. They plan to reduce 
the dropping out of school by keeping children interested in 
J school work. The common branches, if taught at all in 
these two grades, are to be so effectively changed in nature 
that the pupils will not recognize in them their old enemies. 
If arithmetic appears at all, it is as elementary accounts, 
bookkeeping or commercial arithmetic. If it is served to 
them in this way, the boys and girls enjoy the feast. Other 
subjects are added — subjects that appeal to the ambition of 
the young people. The two grades are taken from the 
grammar school building and housed in new quarters where 
the pupils will have only children of their own ages or older 
children to associate with. The real, telling work of the big 
outside world is brought into these new schools, and the 
youngsters have their legitimate ambitions satisfied in school 
work. Finally, the junior high schools are being so con- 
ducted as to make it possible for boys to help the parents, as 
in Los Angeles, either by part-time work in stores or by 
selling the product of their manual training or school-gar- 
dening work. 

We have available some statistical records of the influence 



THE PROBLEMS AND THE SOLUTION 9 

of the junior high school in retaining pupils in school. 
Grand Rapids, Michigan, is a city in which school attend- 
ance was kept up to a very high standard even before the 
institution of the junior high school. The following statis- 
tics are taken from an article by Paul C. Stetson in the 
April, 1918, School Review, but arranged by the author so 
as to show the facts which he wishes to bring out. His 
figures show that the elementary school enrollment remained 
practically stationary from 1908 to 1916, the increase being 
almost entirely in grades VIII to XII, inclusive. He 
states that the junior high schools were established in 1912. 
Not all seventh and eighth grade pupils were at once 
assigned to the junior high schools. The enrollment in the 
seventh grade remained about the same until 191 3, when it 
began to grow by leaps and bounds after feeling the effects 
of the junior high school upon it. The eighth grade had 
hardly been able to hold its own until 19 14, when the effect 
of the junior high school began to be felt. Here are the 
figures. We have underlined the figures where the junior 
high school's influence is felt. ' 

Seventh Grade Eighth Grade 

1908 IO91 946 

1909 1087 IO39 

^o 1063 1053 

1911 Il6l 992 

1912 I082 IO72 

1913 1262 990 

I9H Il88 II40 

i9 J 5 1272 1097 

i9 J 6 1346 1296 

The next case to which we wish to refer is that of 

Macomb, Illinois, as reported by Superintendent V. L. 



io the: junior high school 

Margun. In this city the junior high school was established 
in 191 5-16, the results showing in 1916-17 in the seventh 
grade. The enrollment in the seventh grade had been at a 
standstill while the population of the city had been steadily 
increasing — as shown by the enrollment in grades I to VI. 
The following are the results : 

Grades I to VI Grade VII 

1913 '■•■' 731 83 

1914 745 82 

1915 745 82 

1916 748 81 

1917 743 I2 3 

In order to show how the junior high school is to solve 
the problem of the great mortality in high school, we must 
be able to say what is the cause of the dropping out 
in the first and second years of high school. The following 
seem to be the most usual and best known: (1) The de- 
partmental system is confusing to the new pupils. (2) High 
school lessons are so much harder than those of the grade 
school that failures are far more frequent. Lessons 
are longer and require much home study. (3) High school 
teachers are thought to be less sympathetic — in fact, 
cold and indifferent to the success or failure of students. 
(4) Pupils are thrown immediately upon their own responsi- 
bility in the preparation of their work ; they neglect, stumble, 
flounder, become discouraged, drop out. (5) It seems a 
long time before they will finish — four years — therefore 
they lose heart. (6) The desire is so strong in the breast of 
the adolescent really to "do" something, that cultural studies 
seem a waste of time. 

At first the student likes the change from grades to high 
school. There is greater freedom, greater school spirit and 
activity, everything is new, the buildings and equipment are 



THE PROBLEMS AND THE SOLUTION II 

fascinating, there is a thrill of joy about the whole institu- 
tion. If the pupils had no work to do and could dabble in 
the things that they like, their interest would not flag. The 
days would be one long dream of pleasure ! But, alas and 
alack, the state does not support costly institutions merely to 
amuse young people in their "teens." The evil days speed 
on apace ; there comes a time of reckoning about the end of 
the first quarter, when the report cards show low grades and 
failures. The pupil feels that he has been mistreated, that 
the lessons were too hard and too long, that the teacher 
takes little interest in the freshmen and in him in particular, 
that he should have been warned that he was failing, that 
the teacher did not give him help, that he got a late or wrong 
start through no fault of his own, that he should have been 
made to study and not allowed to drift. Finally, he con- 
cludes that four years spent in hard work upon senseless 
studies are a waste of time for him, he cuts classes, stays out 
of school a day or two at a time, sulks while in school, 
answers the teacher's questions with an abused 'M dunno,'t 
which implies that no person in his right mind could know 
anything about such meaningless stuff as is found in text- 
books, and finally leaves school. 

The junior high school is undertaking to prevent this 
enormous dropping out of pupils in the ninth and tenth 
grades by bridging the chasm through gradual department- 
alization, by introducing new and difficult studies gradually, 
by spreading subjects over a longer period so that each 
lesson will be short enough to be prepared under the school 
roof, by employing sympathetic teachers of boys and girls, 
by slowly extending the individual responsibility of the 
youth, by cutting in two the long period of time required 
to finish school, so that graduation is not so far in the future, 
and by giving the adolescent work that will appeal to his 
interests and ambitions. 



12 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

Departmentalization should begin gradually and in a 
school where the pupil and not the subject is the prime con- 
sideration of the teachers. The first year of high school is 
evidently not the best place for its abrupt beginning. De- 
partmentalization should be pretty well developed by the 
time the ninth grade is reached; but it should be a matter 
of development, not of abrupt change. 

The junior high school offers to solve this problem for us 
by taking the one-teacher-taught pupil and sympathetically 
and gradually introducing him to departmental teaching. A 
sympathetic class adviser teaching him one solid subject and 
two or three minors like penmanship, spelling, and oral Eng- 
lish, or teaching him two or three solids in the seventh 
grade, will make the transition easy and pleasant and safe. 
The other teachers, too, with the right interest in children, 
will appreciate his difficulties and help him over the yawn- 
ing chasm, 1 , even at the expense of strict requirements of 
the curriculum. 

The effect of the junior high school on enrollment in ninth 
grade in Grand Rapids is shown in the following table. The 
population of school age was practically stationary during 
the years 1908-16. We underline the years in which the ninth 
grade was affected by the establishment of junior high 
schools. 

Ninth grade enrollment Gain per cent 

1908 635 I. plus 

1909 626 IO. " 

i9 x o 6 93 3- '" 

1911 713 12. " 

1912 804 12. " 

1913 82 9 3- ' 

1914 984 18. " 

1915 "35 *5- " 1 



THE PROBLEMS AND THE SOLUTION 13. 

In further proof of the efficacy of the junior high school 
plan in holding pupils in school, may be cited the following 
figures from the Pomona schools. There is a law in Cali- 
fornia compelling children to attend school until they reach 
their fifteenth birthday. It is so strictly enforced that we have 
not used figures that concern the number of sixth-grade 
entrants who enter seventh grade. The junior high schools 
were established in 1914, and in 191 5 afTected seventh-grade 
entrants who entered eighth grade; eighth-grade entrants 
who entered ninth grade were also afTected that year. Ninth- 
grade entrants who entered tenth grade were not afTected by 
the junior high school until the fall of 1916; and tenth- 
grade entrants who entered eleventh grade, not until 191 7. 
We have underlined the percentages afTected by the junior 
high school. 

7th to 8th 8th to 9th 9th to 10th 10th to nth 

Sept. 1914 92% 86% 93% 84% 

Sept. 1915 100% 99% 87% 80% 

Sept. 1916 93-9% 92% 92% 71% 

Sept. 1917 88.3% 905% 967% 95% 

Pomona is a rsidential city and began to be afTected by 
the European war in the spring of 1916, when many families 
moved away to the industrial and mining centers. This loss 
of pupils accounts for the counter movement shown in the 
table. It is seen mpst plainly in the first, second and last 
columns. In the first column under the same influence the 
percentage sank from 100 to 93.9 and then to 88.3 per cent. 
In the second from 99 to 92 and then to 90.5. In the fourth 
column, under unvarying influences, the percentages sank 
from 84 to 80 and then to 71. In every grade the junior 
high school immediately raised the percentages as soon as 



14 THE) JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

the change began to affect it. In the eighth grade the per- 
centage was raised from 92 to 100 per cent; in the ninth 
grade from 86 to 99 per cent ; in the tenth grade from Sy to 
92 per cent; and in the eleventh from 71 to 95 per cent. 

Superintendent P. W. Horn, of Houston, reports to his 
hoard as follows: "The most easily measurable result of 
the junior high schools is in the matter of attendance. In 
1913-14 the attendance of white children in the high school 
of Houston was 1341. In 19 16- 17 the high school enroll- 
ments, not including seventh-grade pupils in junior high 
schools, was 2091. This shows an increase of 56 per cent 
in high school enrollment in three years, which is more than 
double the rate of increase in the elementary schools." To 
understand the correctness of Superintendent Horn's state- 
ment, it must be explained that Houston has no eighth grade. 
The seventh, first high and second high school grades are in 
the junior high schools, while the eleventh and twelfth are 
in the senior high schools. 

4. Vocation selection through junior high school. 
Hitherto, when the importance of vocational guidance was 
not appreciated or even understood, the selection of high 
school courses was left either to the child or to the eighth- 
grade teacher. Of course, the high school principal was in 
no position to guide the pupil, for the pupil was probably 
entirely unknown to him before the first day of school. The 
eighth-grade teacher, with her lack of close touch with high 
school progress, is also not a safe guide. The child's selec- 
tion of a course must necessarily be haphazard unless infor- 
mation has by chance fallen into his hands. 

There is no more important step in the life of an indi- 
vidual than that in which he starts upon a high school 
course. He may some day, after paying a fearful penalty, 



THE PROBLEMS AND THE SOLUTION 1 5 

overcome a mistake made at this time. There may be some 
high school courses so general that they will meet the needs 
of a large percentage of a group of a hundred beginners. In 
some schools there may be a chance for readjustment later 
on. But these cases represent the exception, not the rule. 

There is undoubtedly great need for careful vocational 
and educational guidance. The best time for an adviser to 
study the boy is in the period of early adolescence, just 
before he -enters high school. The best opportunity for 
such study is when the student is "exposed" to various 
stimuli. Let a boy take a fair amount of several subjects, 
and then have the vocational adviser watch carefully the 
effect. It should place him in a position to diagnose the 
case with small chance of making a mistake. 

The junior high school is such an institution as will allow 
the greatest opportunity for this study. We have the boy 
or girl at just the right age. There are plenty of short 
courses which the pupil may take. If he is ever going to 
have an aptitude or liking for anything, it will surely show 
in the period from twelve yeaps old to sixteen. With pre- 
engineering, pre-medical, pre-agriculture, pre-business, pre- 
everything in the curriculum that he has to take in the 
junior high school, he should show a response to something 
or to several things. A few may not respond to any of 
these subjects. Some superior authority, such as the parent 
or adviser, may well take in hand pupils of this kind and put 
them through a rigid general curriculum in high school, 
finding out thereby the things they respond to least. By a 
process of elimination, just what is needed by such pupils 
may be ascertained. 

If it be true, as some educational writers assert, that early 
adolescents retain very little of what they learn — get in fact 
very little benefit from study — then it is no waste of 



l6 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

time to use this period for experimentation with them. It 
would at least be far better to use this period for experimen- 
tation and save the pupils to the high school, than to let 
them drop out or to drive them out by our past methods. 
But we are convinced by what has been done in vocational 
guidance through the intermediate high schools of Los 
Angeles, Grand Rapids, Houston and Pomona, that the 
richest and most valuable results are obtainable by the use 
of the early adolescent years of school children. 

Here in the junior high school, the vocational adviser has 
his class in vocational information and guidance. At least 
one semester should be devoted by each pupil to this class. 
In Pomona this subject is taken by every pupil during the 
semester preceding his graduation into the senior high 
school. The pupils learn about the world of occupations, 
the kinds of work, the compensation of each, and the advan- 
tages and disadvantages of every vocation. Interest is 
aroused in the whole field of occupations, and the pupils 
begin to see the importance of their life careers. Here also 
they find that society's interests are worthy of their consid- 
eration. They awaken to the fact that they themselves are 
of importance in the progress of civilization. 

The vocational adviser becomes well acquainted with the 
pupils whom he is to advise and guide. The boys and girls 
are also stimulated to study themselves and their own apti- 
tudes. Guidance therefore becomes a co-operative task, in 
which the pupil takes an active part. In such a class he 
learns to study himself and measure his character, abilities 
and likings. This habit of introspection is of value to him, 
whether or not he hits upon the proper vocation at this time. 

The vocational information acquired and the choice of 
occupation made by the pupil are immediately put into use 
in planning a curriculum to be taken in the senior high 



THE PROBLEMS AND THE SOLUTION \J 

school. The plan is to select such courses as will best fit 
the boy for service for himself and to society. The chosen 
vocation is to be the central object, but of course not the 
only object. The subjects are to be grouped about the main 
purpose of his education. When completely planned, this 
curriculum becomes the concrete result of the whole process 
of vocational guidance in, the junior high school. 

5. Shortening the course by means of the junior high 
school. We have spoken of the demand that men get into 
their life work earlier. The junior high school proposes to 
do its part by shortening the time required by an entire 
year. The university, however, feels that three or four 
years are already too short a time in which to give a profes- 
sional course that is well-rounded and thorough. Moreover, 
the universities are insistent on at least two full years of 
college work as a preparation for the university course. On 
the other hand, educators insist that children should not 
enter school at an earlier age than six, while the laws of 
many states forbid earlier entrance. Long experience has 
shown that the tools and foundations of education are not 
obtainable in less than six or seven years. 

The junior high school has undertaken the task of saving 
a year of time. It proposes to do the work of four grades in 
three years. In some places this plan takes the form of 
doing the work of the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth 
grades in three years, leaving the senior high school the 
tenth, eleventh and twelfth grades to deal with. Richmond, 
Virginia, has worked out this plan very satisfactorily. The 
plan has many things to commend it to parents. One in 
particular is, that the tradition of an eight year elementary 
school is not changed. The children and the parents are 
not called upon to make any sacrifices or to change their 
ideals. When the child is graduated from the elementary 



i8 



THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 



school he enters the tenth grade instead of the ninth grade. 

The plan that commends itself to many educators and 
thinking parents as the best is one in which the work of the 
seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth grades is done in three 
years. In such a plan the elementary school ends with the 
sixth grade and the secondary school begins with the sev- 
enth. If the elementary school has done its work properly 
the pupil will not need much further work on the funda- 
mental operations in arithmetic or the foundational ideas in 
the other subjects. Reading, of course, is continued in 
literature; language in English (composition and gram- 
mar) ; historical stories in history ; arithmetical application 
in bookkeeping and practical accounts. Cultural subjects, 
such as Latin, algebra and general science, may be begun at 
once, with considerable simplification of the beginnings. 

The following plan — the one first adopted in Pomona — 
will illustrate this shortening of the course: 

First Semester Second Semester Third Semester 

English (non H. S.) English (non H. S.) English (non H. S.) 

U.S. Hist. (nonH.S.) U. S. Hist, (non H.S.) Civics (non H. S.) 

Latin (% H. S. Cr.) Latin (% Cr.) Latin (% Cr.) 

Algebra (% H.S.Cr.) Algebra (% Cr.) Algebra (% Cr.) 

Fourth Semester Fifth Semester Sixth Semester 

Accounts (non H.S.) Accounts (non H.S.) Physiology (nonH.S.) 

English I (% Cr.) English II (% Cr.) English III (% Cr.) 

Latin (% Cr.) Latin (% Cr.) Latin (% Cr.) 

PI. Geom. (% Cr.) PI. Geom. (% Cr.) PL Geom. (% Cr.) 

Gen. Science (% Cr.) Gen. Science (% Cr.) Gen. Science (% Cr.) 



Anc. Hist. I (% Cr.) Anc. Hist. (% Cr.) 
Manual Tr. (% Cr.) Manual Tr. (% Cr.) 



Cooking (% Cr.) 
Music (% Cr.) 
Art (% Cr.) 



Anc. Hist. (% Cr.) 
Manual Tr. (% Cr.) 
Cooking (% Cr.) 
Music (% Cr.) 
Art (% Cr.) 



Cooking (.% Cr.) 
Music (% Cr.) 
Art (% Cr.) 
Mec. Draw. (% Cr.) Mec. Draw. (% Cr.) Mec. Draw. (% Cr.) 

Note: The first two courses in each semester are re- 
quired, and three of the last eight courses must be elected. 

During the first three semesters, the pupil completes the 
applications of the foundation subjects and earns two high 



TH£ PRORLKMS AND THE SOLUTION IQ 

school credits. During the second three semesters, the pupil 
earns five high school credits. He graduates into senior high 
school with seven credits, which give him eleventh grade 
standing. By taking four courses through the next two 
years he has upon graduation from senior high school fifteen 
credits, or enough to enter college. As he takes physical 
education, unprepared oral English, and singing throughout 
the five years, he is given an additional credit in a combina- 
tion of these courses. 

This curriculum is cited only as a type of plan whereby 
the work of four grades may be done in three years. 

Another plan that helps to shorten the time of preparation 
for university work is that of promotion by subject in the 
seventh and eighth grades. While promotion by grade in the 
elementary grades may be defensible, such a plan is bad 
after the fundamentals of education have been mastered. In 
the lower grades harmonious development is the chief aim 
of the child's study; in the secondary school the chief aim 
is development of individual characteristics. Promotion in 
the elementary school may possibly be best only when the 
pupil attains a certain minimum standard in all subjects. 
Such a plan followed in the secondary schools would defeat 
the purpose of truly secondary education. 

Promotion by subject begun with early adolescent educa- 
tion will tend to shorten the entire secondary curriculum. 
Failure in one course will not hold the pupil back in all his 
courses. A second failure in t he_same..C0-Ur&e^is-.a^4xi'pi-ty. 
goodindication that the pupil's best education does not need 1 
that subject, proyided;^oF^ourse^,that the teachexiia^jiQJieJ 
r Iiis^parl4irjape£l3^ 

Shortening the time consumed in completing the curricu- 
lum by a year and promotion by Subject are possible only in 
some form of junior high school. 



20 the: junior high school 

6. Adapting education to the needs of adolescence 
through the junior high school. The practical application 
of this plan consists in introducing vocational work into the 
curriculum to meet the growing demand for real, occupa- 
tional work; departmentalizing instruction for the better 
development of the individuality of the pupil and for the 
better teaching of the rich content of secondary subjects; 
enriching the curriculum by new and mind-broadening sub- 
jects, such as the cultural and civic subjects; and by adapt- 
ing all school life to the needs of adolescence — physical, 
mental, moral, and religious. 

We shall discuss these various junior high school methods 
in connection with certain demands of the adolescent nature, 
first for boys and then for girls. 

A. The education of adolescent boys is based upon 
their psychical and physical needs. To the educator or to the 
social reformer planning the proper education of boys, one 
must commend the proverb, "A little child shall lead them." 
To know what to do, we must study the child and let his 
needs tell us what kinds of training should be given. 

( i ) The boy's tendency to grow and be active is encour- 
aged. In school the boy is taught that the home should 
provide plenty of well-cooked, nourishing food, and should 
not provide for much sweets, highly seasoned diet, stimu- 
lants, or rich dishes. The junior high school sees to it that 
the police make it impossible for him to secure liquors and 
tobacco in any form. The school and the playground pro- 
vide plenty of physical exercise and culture, athletics, games, 
and manual and physical labor. 

(2) The feeling of adultness and the desire to be consid- 
ered grown up are not suppressed, but are used for character 
building. Boys' organizations like the Scouts, Baraccas, 
and Corn pubs are formed in school. The school allows the 



THE PROBLEMS AND THE SOLUTION 21 

boy certain elective studies within a safe and sane range, 
and under proper vocational guidance. The organization of 
student self-government may afford a satisfactory method 
of allowing boys self-expression in their desire for adult- 
hood. Here also belong the vocational aspirations that need 
direction. 

(3) The widening of the reasoning faculties is allowed 
expression in debate, orations, argumentation, and mathe- 
matical studies. Historical, political and economic studies 
afford excellent material for the development of these 
faculties. 

(4) Rapid fluctuation in temperament is reduced to a 
minimum by the school in requiring defmiteness of studies 
and continuation of a course through at least several months. 
The school assigns tasks that require regularity and persist- 
ence. The worst thing that can be done is to coddle the boy 
and encourage him in feeling that he has real cause for 
grievance. Such indulgence will inevitably lead the boy to 
take a pride in the obstinacy of his temper, his sulking, his 
fits of gloom and despondency, and his changeful moods. 
The junior high school injects a little more iron and stern- 
ness into its dealing with boy delinquents than does the 
elementary school. 

(5) The strong physical emotions of adolescent boys 
are developed into higher aesthetic emotions. Boys like rag- 
time and noisy music; they are led to enjoy good music by 
the right process in school and in their clubs. Boys like the 
touch sensations felt in rubbing, wrestling, and swimming. 
Care must be exercised not to allow these touch sensation 
to become degenerate or unhealthy. Boys like rugged 
scenery, bright lights, and gaudy colors. The school attempts 
to direct this taste into the highest lines. 



22 TH£ JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

(6) Boys sometimes feel as if the world rested upon 
them and the welfare of society depended upon their opin- 
ions and actions. This feeling is seized and made use of — 
not for the benefit of society, but for the reflex action upon 
the boy. What he plans, the reforms he advocates, the 
changes he so valiantly champions, may never be brought 
to pass ; but the fact that he plans, advocates, and champions, 
has a great effect upon his character. This impulse may be 
directed toward the home, the school, the church, etc., but 
cannot issue in anything. It is turned upon the boy's debat- 
ing society, his club, his ball team, the rules of the game he 
plays, etc., with good effect. 

(7) The distinct sensory feelings of the adolescent are 
worthy of careful cultivation and practical use. The school 
through its classes manages this activity. The sciences 
appeal to the boy whose senses of sight, hearing, weighing, 
feeling, smelling, and measuring, are keen and alert. So it 
is also with drawing, mensuration, surveying, manual train- 
ing, and geometry. 

(8) The religious awakening in boys at this age is prob- 
ably associated with the emotional development of the 
period. Induction into church membership usually comes in 
the early adolescent stage, and a feeling of moral responsi- 
bility arises. The boy begins to long for a purpose in living 
and to plan for the future. The school teachers and advisers 
seize time by the forelock and gain the boy's confidence, and 
put him to work in some purposeful way, and show him how 
he can be a power for good, a leader in the battle for right. 
The fighting spirit in boys of this age will spur them on to 
enter any undertaking that smacks of battle and war. They 
delight to be enlisted as Christian soldiers, but they must 
have real fighting or they will turn away in disgust at the 



THK PROBLEMS AND THE SOLUTION 23 

hollowness of the cause. The school has its part in the 
development of religious feeling and moral courage, and 
should not shirk it. 

B. Education of the adolescent girl. Even more than 
with the boy, we shall find this a problem of physical 
development — a problem that involves not the girl alone, 
but the future generations descendant from her. We must 
keep constantly in mind the fact that we are educating the 
mother of the race. It is important that she should have an 
ideal environment in which to mature her body. We insist 
on this to such a degree because almost the opposite has 
been true — the girl's physical development has been neg- 
lected and her mental development has been overstimulated, 
to the great detriment of the race and to the great unhappi- 
ness of the individual girl. We mean, of course, that the over 
schooling of girls has lessened their chances of marriage at 
the proper time for women to marry; and that home and 
society have combined to educate women in senseless styles 
of dress, in vicious dietary habits, in- unsanitary prudery, 
and in physical flaccidity to a very considerable extent. 

The junior high school attempts sensibly to give physical 
~"" education of the right sort. A good diet, exercises, proper 
elimination, sleep, and dress are the principal positive fac- 
tors; moderation in study, in social functions, in physical 
labor, in standing, and climbing stairs is the principal nega- 
tive factor. These matters are all worked out carefully and 
put into practice by persistent and wise co-operation of all 
concerned. Instruction in the care of the body should espe- 
cially be insisted upon during the period of adolescence. 

Next in importance comes the vocational education of 
girls for the vocation that is to engross thirty years of their 
life in ninety out of every hundred lives — home making. In 
school, girls are taught domestic science, sewing, and home 



24 the: junior high school 

economics. They are given lessons in buying, shopping, de- 
tecting shams from realities, resisting the solicitations of 
salesmen of goods not needed ; they are also taught how the 
government can assist in the training of girls for home life 
by eliminating the economic conditions that draw> or drive, 
girls into the industries. 

As girls' senses are wonderfully acute at this time, their 
education involves the cultivation of flowers and shrubbery. 
They have the opportunity to hear and learn to appreciate 
good music, vocal and instrumental. They see works of art — 
pictures, statuary, and buildings. This is the period when 
deftness of the hands is developed by means of needlework, 
crocheting, fingering the piano, painting and drawing, 
bandaging, molding, kneading, massaging, dressing die 
hair, braiding. 

Singing, playing the piano, drawing, and painting 
belong here. These may be supplemented by decorating, 
designing, draping, trimming, arranging of flowers, sculp- 
turing, pounding ofM)rass, and wood carving. Millinery, 
costume design, book binding, art-metal work, musical 
composition, versifying, dancing, and dramatization, all are 
taught in the junior high school and are very closely related 
to the natural life of the adolescent girl. 

The gregariousness of girls at this period is used to 
advantage by the junior high school. They must have 
cliques and societies, with secret signs and mystery. Girls' 
clubs, French-speaking circles, girls' moral-training classes, 
taffy-making parties, girls' camps, are all necessary to this 
adolescent period. Through these organizations many valu- 
able lessons are learned — co-operation, neighborliness, 
hygienic living, sociability, tact, self-possession, and organ- 
ization. 



THE PROBLEMS AND THE SOLUTION 25 

More will be said later concerning the training of both 
boys and girls in good physical, mental and moral habits. 
Too much insistence cannot be placed upon the necessity for 
careful supervision by teachers of all youthful activities and 
watchful "big-brotherliness" twenty-four hours a day. 



CHAPTER TWO 

HISTORY OF THE MOVEMENT 

The plan of this book is first to explain the junior high 
school movement, and then to describe the school as an insti- 
tution. The first four chapters are devoted to the first topic. 
In chapter r, we explained how conditions alleged to be 
caused or permlitted by the school system had become so 
bad that the public made certain specific demands upon the 
school. The school system organized on the 8-4 plan did 
not seem to be able to meet these demands, hence the reor- 
ganization of the school system and the creation of a junior 
high school. The newly created school undertakes to bring 
about the desired reforms. 

In this chapter we continue to discuss the junior high 
school movement. We go into its history from its inception, 
describing its prototypes in ^Europe and America and the 
establishment of the first successful junior high schools in 
this country, and relate how the National Education Asso- 
ciation, after deliberating over the problems for many 
years, finally took fire and became a mighty crusading force, 
how the new schools sprang up all over the land. The 
chapter closes with a brief description of the various plans 
being tried in the widely scattered parts of our country. 

1. Foreign systems. As the new division of the 
twelve grades of the American school system 1 into two 
groups of six years each was largely suggested by European 
schools, it seems proper to describe briefly the German and 
French plans. 

In Germany there are two distinct types of schools — one 
for the lower class of society, the other for the upper class. 
The first embraces nine years of study, beginning at the 

26 



HISTORY OF THE MOVEMENT 2*J 

age of six and closing normally at the age of fifteen. The 
curriculum is divided into two parts, an elementary school 
of six years and an upper division of three years. The upper 
division is therefore begun at the age of twelve, or at the 
very beginning of adolescence. The six preliminary classes 
only are taught in the common schools. The six elementary 
grades and the upper three grades are taught in the Biirger- 
schulen. The upper division is distinguished from the lower 
by the introduction of English and Latin in the first year 
and by an increase in the number of recitations per week. 

The second type of school, i. e., that for the upper classes, 
has also a curriculum embracing nine years, but it takes the 
pupil at nine years of age and carries him through to 
eighteen years of age. The pupil enters this school able to 
read and write and with some knowledge of numbers. This 
type of school is divided into three divisions — a lower stage 
of three years, an intermediate stage of three years, and a 
higher stage of three years. There is no sharp distinction 
between the lower and the intermediate stages, but in gen- 
eral it may be said that somewhere near this dividing line 
the study of French, English, or Greek is begun ; the number 
of recitation periods per week is greatly increased; history 
and algebraic and geometric mathematics are taken up ; pen- 
manship is discontinued; and pupils are allowed a certain 
amount of election of subjects. There is no break whatever 
between the intermediate stage and the higher stage, unless 
the increase from thirty-five to thirty-six recitation periods 
per week can be so considered. 

The fact stands out clearly that what we call secondary 
education begins with the twelfth year of age in both lower- 
class and upper-class schools in Germany. The intermediate 
stage of the schools for the children of the upper-class 
people corresponds to the highest division of the Burger- 



28 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

schulen in all essential points, and both are of three years' 
duration. This intermediate school work stands out dis- 
tinct and clear from the foundational type of work that 
precedes it. 

In France there are free schools and pay schools. The 
elementary free or common school begins at six years of age 
and extends through to eleven or twelve years of age. A 
primary diploma is awarded. This takes the child to the 
beginning of adolescence. The common schools provide for 
two or three years of further education in what are called 
higher primary schools : complementary course, superior 
primary school, professional school, and manual arts appren- 
tice school. The complementary course is conducted in the 
same building as the elementary school, but the other courses 
are in separate buildings. To enter these higher primary 
schools, the pupil must be twelve years of age and must have 
completed the elementary school. The curricula are all of 
three years' duration and are marked by their enrichment 
with what we should call secondary school subjects and with 
vocational or prevocational subjects. 

The pay schools are partly supported by the nation or by 
the nation and community. They are variously called lycee, 
colleges, or secondary schools. They provide separate 
schools for boys and girls. In general the length of these 
curricula is five or six years for girls and seven years for 
boys. The curriculum is divided into two stages or cycles. 
The first stage contains three years for girls and four years 
for boys. Boys are received as young as ten or twelve years 
of age, and both boys and girls normally complete the first 
cycle by the time they are fifteen. Under the same roof that 
covers the lycee or college (the French college must not be 
confused with the American college) is conducted a primary 



HISTORY OF THE: MOVEMENT 20, 

school for well-to-do children, to prepare them for the sec- 
ondary school. 

The first cycle of the secondary school — lycee, college, or 
secondary course — is quite sharply marked off from primary 
schooling in that there is given an election of studies, foreign 
languages are begun, the number of recitations per week is 
increased, religion is taught, and more attention is given to 
the sciences and mathematics. There is no sharp division 
between the first and second cycles. 

There is a marked resemblance between the three-year 
higher primary school course and the first cycle of the lycee 
and college. They both cover the same years of early ado- 
lescent life ; they are both distinctly marked off from primary 
education; they are either in entirely separate buildings 
from primary children or are conducted as distinctly differ- 
ent classes. 

The reader must be struck by the parallel in the following 
three classes of schools: 

German French American 

Upper division of Higher primary Junior high school 

Burgerschulen school or intermediate high 

Intermediate stage of school 
school for the upper First cycle of lycee 
classes or college 

German French American 
Three year course Three year course Three year course 
Age_i2 to 15 _ Ageii or 12 to 15 Age 12 to 15 
Distinct from pri- Distinct from pri- Distinct from pri- 
mary course mary course mary course 
Merges into upper Merges into second Merges into senior 
stage cycle high school 
Some election Some election Some election 
Foreign languages Foreign languages Foreign languages 
Higher mathematics Higher _ mathematics Higher mathematics 
and sciences and sciences and sciences 

2. Various plans of grouping grades in the United 
States. In the United States the general standard plan has 
been eight years of elementary education and four years of 



30 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL . 

high school. However, in the New England states the 
grouping was until recently quite generally nine and four. 
In the Southern states financial distress following the Civil 
War prevented the communities from offering more than 
seven years of elementary instruction. So they have been 
forced to be content with a 7-4 plan. In a canvass taken in 
191 1 of the 669 cities of 8,000 population or over, 489 had 
the 8-4 plan, 86 had the 9-4 plan, 48 had the 7-4 plan, 4 had 
the 8-5 plan, and the remainder had various modifications of 
these forms. Dr. Frank F. Bunker's monograph, from 
which the above data are taken, points out that ordinarily 
where the elementary course is nine years in length, the 
child starts to school at five years of age; where the course 
is eight years in length, he starts to school at six ; and where 
it is seven years in length, he starts to school at seven. 

In every case the pupil normally finishes his elementary 
course at fourteen years of age, or two years later than his 
French and German cousins. As adolescence begins here at 
twelve as in Europe, we have ignored the point that they 
everywhere observe, namely, that adolescent education 
should be different from pre-adolescent. 

However, Dr. Bunker's investigation shows that even 
before 191 1 several educators had begun to attempt to make 
a change in the grouping so as to adapt education to the 
needs of the two periods of pre-maturity pupils. Not only 
had the professors of education in our great universities 
and normal schools rebelled against the old plan, but even 
the administrators in our great school system's, restricted as 
they were by conservative public opinion, had accomplished 
something toward a reorganization. Still it was only an 
attempt, and in many cases with no clear vision of just what 
was needed. In some cases the changes were made because 



HISTORY OF THE) MOVEMENT 



31 



local conditions made it necessary — empty high school and 
overflowing grade buildings, the need of men teachers for 
the upper grades, or a grade building suddenly emptied by 
the erection of a larger one near. But it must not be for- 
g*otten that in some instances the public actually took the 
lead and forced the superintendent and school board to do 
something. . 

We give below a summary of these changes made prior to 
191 1, and the principal features of each plan: 



City or School Supt. Year Plan 

Boston Latin 1635 6 vr. 

School H.S. 



pre- 
Admitted 



Chicago 1894 



Richmond, Ind. Mott 1896 



Saginaw, Mich. Whitney 



Providence 



Baltimore, Md. Van Sickle 1902 



6yr. 
H.S 



Features 
Purely college 
paratory 

pupils at 10 or 11 
years of age. Still 
thriving. 

Purely college pre- 
paratory. Courses 
of study based upon 
an elementary 6 yr. 
curriculum. 

6-2=4 H. S. subjects in 7th 
and 8th grades. Pro- 
motion by subject. 

6-6 One year of college 
work. Plan aban- 
doned. 

6-2-4 College-prep, courses, 
with foreign lan- 
guages and algebra 
in 7th and 8th 
grades. Reg. H. S. 
9-12 years. 

6-3-2 Only brighest pupils 
permitted at end of 
6th grade to enter 
these 3-yr. junior 
high schools. At end 
of two years of Jr. 
H. S. only the best 
pupils permitted to 
take the 3d yr. in 
junior high school. 



32 



TH£ JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 



City or School Supt. Year 
Kalamazoo, Mich. Hartwell 1902 


Plan 
7-3-2 


Muskegon, Mich. Frost 1904 


6-1- 
2-3 


Peabody, Mass. Albt. Robinson 1905 
Philippine Islands D. P. Barrows 1905 


8-5 
6-4-2 


Marshalltown, la. Palmer 


7-1-4 


Aurora, 111. Bardwell 


8-5 



Issaquah, Wash. Bennett 1906 6-5 



Selma, Ala. Harman 1909 

Roanoke, Va. Hart 1910 

Rahway, N. Y. Bickett 1910 5-3-3 



7-5 
6-2-4 



Olean, N. Y. Slawson 7-5 



Ithaca, N. Y. Boynton 6-2-4 



Concord, N. H. Rundlett 1910 6-2-3 



New York State A. S. Draper 1910 6-2-4 



Features 

One central senior H. 
S., several bldgs. 
containing first 
seven or ten grades. 

Seven grades all in 
one building. 8th 
and 9th grades in H. 
S. annex. 

Change from 9-4. 

College subjects in 
last 2 yrs. 

8th grade depart- 
mentalized and con- 
ducted in H. S. bldg. 

Some H. S. subjects 
in 7th and 8th gr. 
Fifth H. S. year, 
college work. 

Two grammar grades 
taken into 3 yr. H. 
S. and department- 
alized. 

Change from 7-4. 

Work of 12 grades in 
11 years. 

H. S. subjects in 7th 
and 8th grades. 
Apart from H. S. 
Promotion by subj. 

Best pupils finish H. 
S. at end of nth 
year of school. 

H. S. subjects in 7th 
and 8th grades. 
Apart from H. S. 

The "2" and the "3" 
year schools in sep- 
arate bldgs. Short- 
ens course 12 to n 
years. 

Elem. education com- 
pleted in six years. 
Real secondary 
work begins in 7th 
grade. 



HISTORY OF THI5 MOVEMENT 33 

City or School Supt. Year Plan Features 

New Albany, Ind. Buerk 1910 7-1-A Merely a grouping of 

all 8th grade pupils 
in one bldg. De- 
partmentalization. 
Alameda, Cal. Wood 1910 6-2-4 7th and 8th grades in 

same building with 
lower grades but de- 
partmental i z a t i o n 
and principle of 
election introduced. 
Los Angeles, Cal. Moore 1910 6-2-4 Languages in 7th and 

8th. Departmental- 
ization. 

From the above it will be seen that the new day was 
beginning to dawn even before the first decade of the twen- 
tieth century; that between 1900 and 1910 various plans 
were tried out, mlany of them containing one or more of 
the elements of the junior high school as described in Chap- 
ter One of this work. When at last the new plan did come 
into being, it came to two cities at the^same time. 

3. Superintendent Bunker and the Berkeley plan. In 
1908 Frank F. Bunker was elected superintendent of schools 
for the city of Berkeley, California, after having served a 
year as assistant superintendent in Los Angeles under 
Superintendent E. C. Moore. He was a careful student of 
education, and was especially interested in a reorganization 
of the system of schools so that each grade would have a 
particular function and could accomplish the end desired of 
it. His study led him to the belief that the seventh and 
eighth grades had not been functioning — in fact, had been a 
stumbling block in the way of education ; so muCh so that a 
large percentage of children were dropping out during those 
years and during the early years of the high school as a 
result of the failure of the public schools to do their work 
in the seventh and eighth years of the pupil's school life. 



.' 



34 TH £ JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL " ' : 

In January, 19 10, upon the recommendation of Superin- 
tendent Bunker, the Berkeley School Board established the 
first junior high school in America. The plan did not at 
first meet with general approval, and there is little wonder 
that it did not. There was to he no new building in a cen- 
trally located part of the city. If there had been such a 
building just completed and ready for occupancy, doubtless 
the problem would have been less difficult. Instead, an old 
grade building had to be used, and even then not all of that. 
The neighborhood insisted that it be allowed to continue to 
send its smaller children to this building : consequently only 
a part could be used for the junior high school classes. 

Not only was this building unsuitable for the depart- 
mental work of an intermediate high school and only in part 
usable for that purpose, but seventh and eighth grade chil- 
dren of other neighboring buildings had become so attached 
to their own schools that they objected to being shifted. 
'This objection was met by allowing such children to decide 
"by classes whether they would attend the one-teacher grades 
;to which they had been accustomed, or go to the junior high 
school. After the system was once established, however, 
pupils finishing the sixth grade were required to go to the 
central intermediate high school buildings. Soon the ninth 
grade also was retained in these buildings. 

So great, however, were the difficulties, so new the plan, 
and so fundamental was the change, that it became neces- 
sary to appeal to the people for a ratification of the scheme. 
A campaign of enlightenment was undertaken, and dozens 
of public meetings were held to discuss the matter. Parent- 
teacher associations, mothers' clubs, neighborhood clubs, 
and churches became interested in the question. At last 
favorable resolutions from all these organizations and 
assemblies were presented to the board of education, and 



HISTORY OF THE MOVEMENT 35 

the six-three-three plan became permanent in Berkeley. 
There are now several large buildings devoted entirely to the 
junior high school work. 

4. The Los Angeles plan. Supt. E. C. Moore, who 
had inspired Bunker with enthusiasm for a reorganization 
of secondary education, was to awaken a similar interest in 
J. H. Francis. While Mr. Francis, at that time principal of 
a large polytechnic high school in Los Angeles, was travel- 
ing in Europe in 1909, he wrote from Italy a detailed report 
to Superintendent Moore on his investigations in Europe 
and advocated the six-three-three plan for the schools of his 
city. Mr. Francis approached the conception from an 
entirely different point of view from Mr. Bunker. He was 
interested in the vocational phase of the question. If boys 
and girls will drop out of school at fifteen or sixteen years 
of age, they should get, while in school,^some practical infor- 
mation and some technical skill that will help them to earn 
a living. Good as were the technical, commercial, and 
applied art courses of the high school, they very largely 
failed to reach the largest class of boys and girls who would 
use that type of education, for that class ordinarily leaves 
school at the end of the eighth or ninth grade. 

In the summer of 1910 Mr. Francis was elected superin- 
tendent of the city schools of Los Angeles, and at once 
launched his plans. Influential with his board, he readily 
got it to embark upon a course of establishing intermediate 
high schools. These met, of course, the same conservative 
opposition that had characterized the inauguration of the 
plan in Berkeley. But Los Angeles was so large and so 
rapidly growing a community that new school buildings 
were constantly being built. Several of the new buildings 
were used as junior high schools. These very attractive 



36 the: junior high school, 

homes for the junior high school at once aroused the enthu- 
siasm of pupils and parents. 

In Los Angeles the ninth-grade pupils living in certain 
sections are permitted to attend high school if they prefer. 
About 50 per cent elect to go to the high school. Pupils 
expecting to continue in school through the twelfth grade 
generally leave the intermediate school at the end of the 
eighth year; pupils electing vocational or prevocational 
courses take their ninth-grade work in the junior high school 
and then leave school and go to work. There is, however, 
a growing tendency for all pupils to remain their full three 
years in the lower school, especially now that they can in 
these three years earn six or seven high school credits as 
well as comlplete the work of the seventh and eighth grades. 
Superintendent Shiels has, during his administration, given 
great impetus to this movement so that the junior high 
school in Los Angeles has come to be a decidedly secondary 
school in character. 

5. Work of the National Education Association. 
.Although the National Education Association started late to 
"interest itself in the work of the junior high school, it has in 
the last three years given considerable acceleration to the 
movement. In 191 1 there was presented a report on the 
articulation of high school and college. This opened up 
such a large number of questions that a commission was 
appointed to work out a reorganization of secondary educa- 
tion. The commission's preliminary report made, in 1913 
concerned itself with the subjects then taught in the four- 
year high school and gave almost no indication of a con- 
sciousness of the so-called 6-3-3 movement that had already 
appeared in several cities. But the 1914 report indicates that 
the commission had practically become committed to the 
new plan, saying: "The traditional plan of devoting eight 



HISTORY OF THE MOVEMENT 37 

years to elementary education is rapidly becoming obsolete. 
.... Consequently it will be necessary for each committee 
[the commission was divided into committees] in preparing 
its report to indicate how its recommendations may be ad- 
justed so as to meet the needs of schools under both plans." 
In 1916 two committees of this commission reported. The 
one on English in the Secondary School advocated a six- 
year course in English beginning with the seventh grade. 
The committee on Social Studies recommended a six-year 
secondary school program adapted to both the 6-3-3 an d the 
8-4 plans. 

Meanwhile the committee on Economy of Time, under the 
chairmanship of Superintendent H. B. Wilson, reported in 
19 1 3 on several plans for shortening the elementary curri- 
culum. Professor Judd of the committee reported a plan 
which was being tried out in the University of Chicago 
training schools whereby the eight years of elementary 
work were being done in seven years and work of grades 
nine to fourteen, inclusive, in five years. In 19 14 the com- 
mittee reported that actual progress had been mlade in 
formulating plans for economy of time in the various 
elementary subjects. Significant also was the report of a 
similar committee of the National Council of the National 
Education Association Which had been working on the prob- 
lem since 1908. This report recommended the division of 
educational curricula as follows : 

Elementary Education , Ages 6 to 12 

Secondary Education (2 divisions — 4 yrs. and 

2 yrs.) 12 to 18 

College 18 to 20 

University (graduate and professional) .... 20 to 24 

In 1916, at a meeting of the Department of Superintend- 
ence in Detroit occurred two most interesting and far-reach- 



38 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

ing debates. The first was a debate on the question: 
Resolved, That the best organisation for American schools 
is a plan which shall divide these schools into six years of 
elementary training and sir years of secondary training. 
The affirmative was upheld by Professor Charles H. Judd, 
Director of the School of Education, University of Chicago, 
and the negative by President Carroll G. Pearse, of the 
Milwaukee State Normal School. With all due regard to 
the abilities of the negative speaker, the fact that such a 
well-known educator as Dr. Judd should publicly advocate 
the junior high school so eloquently and convincingly was 
epoch making. Hundreds of city superintendents left the 
convention with the intention of establishing the new plan 
in their cities. The next day the delegates to this convention 
of three thousand superintendents were privileged to hear a 
joint discussion of "The Minimum Essentials vs. the Differ- 
entiated Course of Study in the Seventh and Eighth 
Grades/' by Doctors Coffman, Bagley, and Snedden. These 
addresses at Detroit and the very strong paper by Pro- 
fessor Johnston at the New York City gathering in the fol- 
lowing summer, beginning, "The junior high school move- 
ment is sweeping the country," have brought the subject of 
this monograph into a position of the greatest prominence 
in the National Education Association. 

6. The junior high school throughout the country. 
To trace the history of this movement from the time that 
the first real junior high school was established in Berkeley 
in 1910 would be like an attempt to count the springing up 
of mushrooms on a spring morning after a rain. Notable 
among the cities that have committed themselves to the plan 
are Houston and Detroit. Two new and beautiful buildings 
were constructed in the former city to accommodate 1,000 
pupils each. In the fall of 1914 all the pupils of the three 



HISTORY OF THR MOVEMENT 39 

grades following the sixth were housed in these splendid 
homes. Detroit has built five such junior high school build- 
ings at a cost of over half a million dollars. Salt Lake City 
has organized three large schools of this type. Former 
Superintendent -Brumbaugh recommended to his board that 
the Philadelphia school system be organized on the 6-6 basis 
with junior and senior high schools of three years each. The 
University of Michigan is encouraging the establishment of 
junior high schools by offering to accept three entrance 
credits earned in seventh and eighth grades — that is, the 
first two years of intermediate high school. St. Paul like- 
wise has just adopted the plan, and is constructing a build- 
ing to accommodate a large junior high school, with one of 
the largest athletic fields in Minnesota. In that city the sev- 
enth, eighth, and ninth grade pupils are called Juniors and 
the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth graders, Seniors. Lewiston, 
Idaho, has a well-mlatured junior high school with a splendid 
curriculum. It forms one of the two wings of a large cen- 
tral building that also houses the senior high school. There 
are different principals for the two schools, but the instruc- 
tors teach in both schools. 

By the summer of 191 6 almost every state in the Union 
had one or more of these junior high schools. Reports show 
them distributed among the several states as follows: 

Indiana 24 New Jersey 6 Iowa 3 

Minnesota 24 Ohio 5 Connecticut 2 

North Dakota 20 Oklahoma 5 Kentucky 2 

Pennsylvania 16 Tennessee 5 Maine 2 

California 15 Texas . 5 Vermont 2 

Kansas 13 Colorado 4 Alabama 

New York 13 Missouri 4 Arizona 

Illinois 9 Montana 4 Arkansas 

Massachusetts 8 South Dakota 4 Florida 

Michigan 8 Utah 4 Georgia 

Oregon ; 7 Virginia 4 New Hampshire . 

Idaho 6 Wyoming 4 Rhode Island 

Nebraska 6 Washington 3 

38 States Had 254 Junior High Schools 



40 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

The latest available statistics at the end of 191 7 showed 
that 365 school systems, including most of the largest cities, 
had organized junior high schools on the general plan 
described in this book. The states of Vermont and Okla- 
homa are reorganizing their entire school systems to include 
these new institutions in every city and town. When this 
work is completed the number of junior high schools in the 
country will approximate 1,000. 

7. Varying plans in operation. The reader will at 
once see the possibilities of variety. The simplest is the 
Berkeley system of arranging the seventh, eighth and ninth 
grades in the lower division, and tenth, eleventh and twelfth 
grades in the upper division, each grade consuming a year 
of time. This scheme contains all the points mentioned in 
Chapter One except the saving of a year of time. The Los 
Angeles plan attempts to do in three years the work of the 
seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth grades, and consequently 
leaves only two years for the senior- high school proper. 
Detroit and most Eastern cities follow the Berkeley plan. 
Houston completes the twelve grades in eleven years. Its 
secondary system might be stated as follows : The seventh, 
ninth, and tenth grades in the intermediate school ; the elev- 
enth and twelfth in the senior high school. The eighth 
grade does not, and never did exist. 

In New York City in 1913 there were 61,262 pupils en- 
rolled in the high school. During that year there had been 
20,326 pupils who failed to complete their courses. Of 
these, over 12,000 were in the first year. The result of this 
loss of pupils has brought about in that city some radical 
changes from the former plan. 

The intermediate school was introduced, largely to reduce 
this loss of attendance. It also plans to save a year of time 



HISTORY OF TIIF, MOVEMENT 4 1 

for the pupils. The sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth grades 
are to be grouped into an intermediate school, and the work 
done in three years. This is to be accomplished by certain 
modifications in the grammar school curriculum, promotion 
by studies, and other features that are common to the junior 
high school. 

Practically this same plan exists in Richmond, Virginia, 
where, however, the nomenclature is different. In Rich- 
mond the name ''intermediate school" applies to a school in 
which just the fifth grade is taught. After finishing this 
intermediate school the pupils pass into the junior high 
school, which covers the work of the sixth, seventh, eighth, 
and ninth grades. The work, however, of these four grades 
is done in three years. This junior high school has most of 
the characteristics that were described in Chapter One of 
this book as being essential to such an institution. It seems 
that in Richmond the purpose of the "intermediate school" 
is to prepare pupils better for the junior high school. The 
former, however, does not form any part of the latter. One 
of the earliest junior high schools established in that city 
was the Bainbridge School. For a while, at least, the fifth 
grade was taught under the same roof. 

In Fitchburg, Massachusetts, there are maintained inter- 
mediate schools which are, more or less independent of the 
high school. The curricula offered in them are, however, 
largely finishing curricula, although the schools maintain 
literary courses that lead directly to the senior high school. 

The purpose of the Fitchburg intermediate school is to 
keep children in school and to afford an opportunity to give 
a semi-vocational education to over-age children. There are 
similar intermediate schools in Cleveland, Albany, and 
Rochester. Little attention is given to grading in any of 
these schools. The thing that counts for entrance is age. 



42 TH£ JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

The intermediate schools do not form an essential link in 
the school curriculum. They aim to deal with special cases, 
although academic work is given in connection with the 
industrial work. 

Then there is the plan that makes no break in the middle 
of the secondary curriculum but completes the six upper 
grades in six or even in five years. 

Finally, there is the plan adopted in Pomona, California, 
which is the one that seems to be ideal to the writer. This 
plan completes the seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth grades 
in three years, and then devotes four years to the eleventh, 
twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth grades. This normally 
carries the student to his nineteenth birthday, and gives him 
a strong taste of college life, vocational education that 
carries him well on toward maturity, and qualifies him to 
begin university work where it should begin, with the junior 
certificate. Such a plan when adopted creates not simply one 
new institution but brings into life at one and the same time 
two new institutions, a junior high school and a "senior high 
school — junior college." In this way the high school is not 
merely robbed of its first or first and second years, but is 
abolished altogether as not meeting the highest purposes, 
and in its place and in the place of the seventh and eighth 
grades and the junior college appear two entirely new insti- 
tutions profiting by the successes and failures of the schools 
they displace. 






CHAPTER THREE 

OBJECTIONS TO JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 
ANSWERED 

In the general plan of describing the junior high school 
movement, we have spoken of the conditions that gave rise 
to the movement and have described its history. In this 
chapter we shall treat of the obstacles — real and fancied — 
that have stood in the way of the progress of the movement 
and the manner in which these obstacles have been, or may 
be, removed. The first obstacle has been the belief on the 
part of many educators that the desirable results claimed 
for the junior high school are obtainable under the 8-4 
plan. The second obstacle has been the objection of some 
parents to the new school arrangement because it caused 
their children to have to walk farther to attend school. The 
third obstacle to its success has been the alleged unfavorable 
effect that it is having upon elementary-school teachers. 
The fourth obstacle is the difficulty of obtaining college- 
trained teachers ; and the fifth the difficulty of inducing ninth 
grade pupils to attend a junior high school. A sixth 
obstacle is the expense of additional buildings, grounds, and 
equipment. Finally, it is asserted that the conservatism of 
the public will render the establishment of junior high 
schools well nigh impossible. 

1. The same results obtainable under the old plan. 
Some educators maintain that this new institution is a fad 
and will soon be out of style. They say that all the good 
things claimed for the 6-3-3 plan can be secured without 
changing the old general plan and especially without creat- 
ing a new institution. They say that in many grade schools 
the work of the seventh and eighth grades is taught '.depart- 

43 



44 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL, 

mentally, with the result that pupils are prepared for the 
departmental work of the high school. They argue that 
there would be nothing to prevent the course of study of 
such a school from being enriched by the addition of a 
foreign language, algebra, and other good things. In such 
a school the idea of vocation-selection could be carried out 
as easily as if it were a separate institution. 

To these arguments it may be interposed that there is no 
particular harm in having a new institution. The kinder- 
garten, the night school, summer sessions, continuation 
classes, and the high school itself were new institutions at 
one time and can hardly yet be considered old or unchange- 
ably established. Even the public school as a state-sup- 
ported institution is comparatively new. There can be no 
serious objection to the junior high school because it is new, 
or because it adds one more to the number of institutions 
already existing. As for departmentalizing the seventh and 
eighth grades in a grade building, it must be admitted by 
our opponents that this is very difficult in the ordinary grade 
building where there are no more than two teachers for the 
two — seventh and eighth — grades. Moreover, the rooms 
are often dismally large and unadapted to classroom use. 
Most objectionable is the utter heterogeneity of such a 
school, with its six-year-olds getting in the way of the 
strenuously physical adolescents. 

As for enriching the curriculum under the old plan, the 
matter of getting good grade teachers to teach subjects 
that are really high school branches would be difficult. It is 
hard enough to get junior high school teachers to venture 
to teach algebra, Latin, and ancient history to seventh-grade 
pupils. The natural conservatism of teachers would well- 
nigh prevent regular grade school teachers from undertak- 
ing to teach such immature ( ?) children the higher ( ?) 



OBJECTIONS ANSWERED 45 

branches. Besides, the grammar school course of study has 
in many states become a state adoption, so that ambitious 
cities and towns would find themselves handicapped on every 
hand if they attempted to try something radically new and 
different. In California, a progressive state, Berkeley and 
Los Angeles under the old laws found themselves so hedged 
about by statutory restraints and state textbook laws that 
they were prevented from working out new curriculums on 
a broad basis. We refer to such laws as required the use of 
state-published textbooks in United States history, geogra- 
phy, arithmetic, etc., in the seventh and eighth grades, and 
to the law requiring twelve and one-half hours out of the 
twenty per week to be devoted to the common branches. 

Vocation selection could not succeed under the old plan. 
In the first place there could be little or no election of sub- 
jects. A grade school with even four teachers and 160 
pupils in the seventh and eighth grades could not offer a 
large number of subjects. With such a limited number of 
pupils many classes would be so small that they could not be 
maintained even if there were seven or eight teachers. Each 
half grade would contain approximately 40 pupils. Of these 
the elections as tried out in Pomona run : English, 40 
(compulsory); bookkeeping, 25; algebra, 15;. ancient his- 
tory, 8 ; domestic science, 8 ; Latin, 8 ; Spanish, 29 ; German, 
3 ; manual training, 20 ; general science, 7. This necessitated 
two classes in English, two in Spanish, and one in each of 
the other subjects — a total of twelve classes in the B 7. But 
in the two grades as a whole, owing to conflicts in the pro- 
gram due to failures, etc., the total number of classes was 
51 in solids and five in music, drawing, etc. — 56 classes or 
nine teachers for only 160 pupils ! And yet without election 
of subjects and a wide variety of options no real vocational 
traits can be discovered. 



46 the: junior high school, 

Finally, the argument against a separate institution for 
pupils of ages twelve to fifteen leaves out entirely the ques- 
tion of the ambition of adolescent children to lead a life 
untrammeled and unhampered by the restrictions and re- 
pressions incident to the elementary school against which 
they now chafe with bitterness and which prompts them in 
large numbers to leave our old-time grade schools. 

2. Greater distance of pupils from school. This is 
usually true when a building that has been used for grade 
school purposes is taken entirely for junior high school pur- 
poses. Superintendent Bunker, of Berkeley, tells of his 
troubles in this matter. He wished to use a certain grade 
school building for an intermediate school, the pupils to be 
drawn from the seventh and eighth grades of several other 
grammar buildings in the vicinity. The thought was then 
to fill the rooms of those buildings with the lower grade 
pupils who had formerly attended the central building now 
to be used as a junior high school. This plan would necessi- 
tate a number of changes in the boundaries of districts ; but 
most objectionable of all changes was that which took the 
primary children who lived within a stone's throw of the 
central building they had been accustomed to attend, and 
required them to walk several blocks to another building. 
The parents objected to this change, and the matter was 
adjusted by leaving the smallest tots in the central building, 
so that only the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth grade young- 
sters had to walk the greater distance. 

Not only did this work hardship on the grade children 
transferred, but it required the seventh and eighth graders 
to go much farther to attend school. We may conceive of 
a group of nine buildings, A, B, C, D, B, F, G, H, and I, 
arranged as they probably would be in a city so that / 
would be in the center of the town, or, if a large city, in the 



OBJECTIONS ANSWERED 



47 



center of a ward. The other schools would be equi-distant 
from I, so that each occupied the center of a district of, let 
us say, sixty-four blocks. The whole town, or ward, would 
appear somewhat as in the diagram: 



A 


B 


C 


H 


I 


D 


G 


F 


E 



It is desired to convert / into a junior high school, draw- 
ing all seventh and eighth grade children from A, B, C, D, 
B, F, G, and H, a total of sixteen rooms of children. If 
each building had sixteen rooms, the six lower grades would 
probably occupy fourteen rooms in each building. When 
the change is made, the fourteen rooms full of younger 
children from school / would be distributed among the 
eight other buildings, filling the two rooms in each building 
that would be left vacant. The upper-grade children living 
between buildings A and I, B and I, etc., would not be 
seriously inconvenienced; but those living beyond building 
A, building B, etc., would have much farther to go and 
would feel greatly inconvenienced. At first they would be 
greatly annoyed, especially in foul weather. 



48 th£ JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

The problem of the smaller children can be solved as it 
was in Berkeley and other cities, by leaving the very smallest 
children in I; and it can be permanently solved by leaving 
all the six lower grades in building / and then building a 
new school-house for the junior high school pupils, some- 
where near the center of the whole district. The problem of 
the larger children has no solution; it cannot be avoided, 
unless the school department provides free transportation 
for the seventh and eighth grade pupils. However, there is 
compensation for the longer distance these upper-grade 
children have to go in the fact that the ninth-grade pupils 
would not have so far to go as they would if they attended 
the senior high school, which would be at the center of a 
much larger district. There would, of course, be compensa- 
tion in the better schooling and the greater advantages 
offered by the junior high school to seventh and eighth grade 
pupils than they had in the grade buildings. 

Finally, it may be said that these same problems arose at 
the time of the creation of high schools. It is within the 
memory of many who read this book that the high school 
was conducted on the upper floor of a grade building and 
was later housed in a building by itself remote from the 
homes of many students. Nowadays it seems to be the 
fashion to build new high schools at the edge of town or in 
the suburbs of a city where plenty of ground can be bought 
cheaply for agricultural and playground purposes. We hear 
little complaint of this custom, and we are likely to hear 
little complaint of the junior high school hardships after the 
benefits are fully realized. 

3. Unfavorable effect upon elementary school teach- 
ers. Those who seem to want to find every source of oppo- 
sition to the junior high school as a distinct institution claim 
that there is a strong feeling against it among grade 
teachers. It is alleged that they oppose the plan (a) because 



OBJECTIONS ANSWERED 49 

it overworks them and the children in getting the pupils 
ready for the intermediate high school in six years ; that is, 
that they have to do the eight grades in six years, (b) Sev- 
enth and eighth grade teachers unable to secure higher certi- 
fication are compelled to accept assignment to lower-grade 
work, for which they are unprepared and unadapted and 
which is distasteful to them in the extreme, (c) The crea- 
tion of a new institution diverts funds from the elementary 
schools, which are already suffering for want of equipment, 
and this prevents a raising of the salaries of elementary 
teachers and a consequent raising of the standard of the 
teaching profession. 

In answer to these alleged objections of elementary school 
teachers it can be shown that (a 1 ) by elimination of the non- 
essentials from the elementary curriculum, by reorganiza- 
tion of the work, and by removal of the decidedly over-age 
pupils to the intermediate high school, neither the pupils nor 
the teachers will be overworked in preparing for the junior 
high school in six years. We shall go into this matter in 
detail in the chapter on "The Effect upon the Elementary 
Grades Preceding the Junior High School." As the seventh 
and eighth grade work has heretofore been very largely a 
repetition of that done in the lower grades, it is absurd to 
say that this upper-grade work is to be crowded upon the 
elementary school. Furthermore, the junior high school is 
to take the children as they come and build upon the prep- 
aration already attained, not dictate what that preparation 
must be. The principal and teachers of the intermediate 
high school will have no authority to reject any pupil sent 
to them. They must take all entrants and do the very best 
for them that is possible. 

(b 1 ) Occasionally, one must admit, a hardship may be 
worked upon a few teachers by the inauguration of a new 



50 the: junior high school 

arrangement of work. As a general rule, however, the 
former seventh and eighth grade teachers have been taken 
over into the junior high school. Most of the teachers that 
have chosen this upper-grade work in the past were teachers 
who had had some college work or who were ambitious 
enough to attend summer sessions of the universities to 
broaden their mental horizon. In several cities with which 
the author is familiar, the upper-grade teachers were given 
a choice between taking a lower-grade assignment, or pre- 
paring for intermediate work. In all cases they were given 
several years in which to make the adjustment. In Pomona 
they all elected to prepare for the junior high school work, 
and none complained that it was a hardship to him. They 
are thoroughly enjoying the added professional interest and 
zest that the change has aroused. 

(c 1 ) In answer to the objection raised that the junior 
high school's support will take from the elementary funds, 
it may be answered that in California it has had just the 
opposite effect. In this state the junior high school is sup- 
ported entirely out of high school funds, which have been 
increased by entirely new revenue in order to meet this addi- 
tional burden. The elementary school funds have remained 
the same as they were before the new law ; but with only six 
grades to support, instead of eight as formerly, the ele- 
mentary school funds are proving ample. In fact, there is 
such a surplus that new buildings are being built, better 
equipment is being bought, and teachers' salaries are being 
raised. 

4. Difficulty of obtaining college- trained teachers. 
It is claimed that the authorities have found difficulty in 
securing college-trained teachers for this new institution. 
They want high school positions and consider it beneath 
their dignity to teach the younger pupils. There is, of 



OBJECTIONS ANSWERED 51 

course, a real problem here, but by no means an unsolvable 
one. The problem really arises from a lack of understand- 
ing of what junior high school work is, on the part of college 
graduates who have fitted themselves to teach in high school. 
They object not so much to teaching younger pupils as to 
teaching the common school branches. Unless they are 
familiar with this modern trend in education, they imagine 
that it is grade school work. They want to teach algebra 
and geometry, not arithmetic. 

Of course they object to the lower salaries ; but the matter 
of salaries is largely determined by the laws of supply and 
demand. Where there is a large supply of new teachers 
and few positions in high school open, they are compelled 
to accept the lower salaries. A survey of the cities will 
reveal the fact that hundreds of teachers holding high school 
certificates are teaching in the elementary grades. As a mat- 
ter of fact, many such teachers learn to like work with the 
smaller children and do not care to change. 

When it comes to a matter of choice, many high-school- 
certified teachers choose to accept positions in the junior 
high schools of cities and large towns rather than go into 
remote districts for strictly high school teaching. This they 
do in spite of the higher salaries paid in the remote high 
school districts. And well they might, for the chance of 
appointment to city senior high schools from the interme- 
diate high schools of the same community is better than 
from a rural high school. The reason is clear : The super- 
intendent and supervisors come to know the teacher's quali- 
fications better when in the same city than when he is in a 
remote town or village. Some city boards of education 
make it a rule that vacancies in the senior high school shall 
be filled by transfer from the junior high schools. 

Nevertheless, it is confidently asserted by the opponents 



52 ths junior high school 

of the 6-3-3 pl an that school authorities will never get men 
to teach in the junior high schools, and that these new 
schools will be over-femininized. We cannot admit that this 
will be the case. It is not so much that the elementary 
schools have paid lower salaries or that men do not like to 
work with small children that men have been kept from 
entering the lower-grade work; it has been a matter of 
supply and of custom. There has been a larger supply of 
efficient women teachers than of even mediocre men teach- 
ers. The result has been that boards have employed the bet- 
ter teachers. The custom once established of employing 
women in the grades, men have shrunk from competing, and 
boards have shrunk from breaking the custom. 

Now the intermediate high school, as an entirely new 
institution, starts its career bidding for an equal number of 
men and women. Men will not regard it as trespassing 
upon woman's special field of acitvity; and we may expect 
young men to seek and secure junior high school positions 
along with women. The adolescent children need the men 
teachers as well as the women. With men already employed 
in these schools in large numbers, young college men will 
look upon such teaching as affording an attractive career. 
We predict this with certainty, for we see it already going 
on. 

Finally, both women and men are being taught in train- 
ing schools to be teachers of boys and girls, and less of sub- 
jects. Even the college-educated man or woman will readily 
see that it is a far nobler occupation to train the youth of the 
land than to impart information or to add to the sum total 
of human knowledge by research in the universities. When 
this becomes their dominating, all-absorbing passion, they 
will long for the opportunity of coming into contact with the 
young folks at the very earliest adolescent period. 



OBJ ACTIONS ANSWERED 53 

5. Difficulty of inducing ninth grade pupils to attend 
junior high school. When the intermediate schools were 
first established in Pomona, the boys and girls who were 
ready for the ninth grade were given a choice as to whether 
they would take the next year's work in intermediate school 
or go on to high school. They were unanimous to go to 
high school. They explained that they had for several 
years been looking forward to the time when they could 
experience all the broader life of the high school, including 
participation in high school athletics, that they would dis- 
like to have to wait another year. 

At the end of another semester the pupils of the class 
finishing the eighth grade were again permitted to choose 
what they should do. In this case 20 per cent of the pupils 
elected to remain in the junior high school; the others chose 
the high school. Meanwhile there had been a campaign on 
the part of high school pupils to induce the above class to 
choose the high school for the ninth grade. 

At the end of another semester, the class was required to 
stay in the intermediate school. There was some complaint, 
several students dropping out of school rather than remain. 
But fully 85 per cent of the pupils stayed in school to the 
end of the ninth grade, entering the senior high school in 
February, 191 7. Several have requested that they be per- 
mitted to stay one year more in intermediate high. The 
next class, though not given a choice, voted unanimously to 
stay in the junior high school for their ninth-grade work. 
They entered the senior high school, at the end of the year, 
with seven credits. 

The explanation of the results given above are simple. 
Pupils accustomed to the old grade system through the 
eighth grade want to enter high school. Pupils that have 
been accustomed to the advantages of the junior high school 



54 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

in their seventh and eighth grades prefer to remain through 
another year. Many will then be loath to leave, for they will 
have become attached to their intermediate school. But, if 
we close the intermediate work with the end of the tenth 
grade, all the pupils who can will go on to senior high 
school. 

This objection to the junior high school, then, falls down 
when the pupils become accustomed to the new plan. The 
large life, the social spirit, loyalty, athletics, interesting sub- 
jects of study, attachment to building, excellent and sympa- 
thetic teachers, all will 'combine to make the pupil happy to 
remain in his junior high school through the ninth and even 
the tenth grade. 

6. Additional expense for buildings, grounds, and 
equipment. To make a success of a junior high school, it 
is claimed by its opponents, there must be central grounds 
provided, a specially designed building constructed, and 
expensive equipment bought. In a small city of 20,000 
inhabitants, where there would be approximately 1,000 
pupils in the seventh, eighth, and ninth grades, two such 
plants Avould be necessary, in order to serve the community 
well. If ample grounds were provided in central locations, 
the cost would be at least $20,000. Two buildings, each large 
enough to house 500 students doing departmental work, 
would cost approximately $100,000; while the equipment 
for libraries, laboratories, gymnasiums, desks, etc., could 
not be provided for much short of $20,000. In other words, 
there would be an outlay of $140,000, for which the city 
would have to bond itself, all as an additional expense 
caused by adoption of the 6-3-3 plan. 

It must be admitted that in a city that has reached its 
maximum population and wealth, or in one that is decreas- 
ing in both population and wealth, the purchase of grounds 



o i ; j i : cr ions .\ n s w ic i : k i > 55 

and the erection of two such buildings as described would 
entail an entirely additional expense upon the community. 
Such an additional outlay of funds might, however, be justi- 
fied on the ground that the old buildings would be annually 
deteriorating, would possibly already have passed beyond 
use. A new building to take the place of an old one might 
already be imminently necessary. At any rate, some build- 
ing in such a stationary community of 20,000 people would 
be old and dilapidated — possibly one that had been built to 
accommodate the city's children when there were not more 
than 500 of them in all. Such a building would be out of 
date and should be condemned and wrecked. 

That this is not random supposition is more than evi- 
denced by the survey recently made of the Denver schools. 
That survey speaks of a large number of Denver's school 
buildings as entirely unfit for school use. If a live young 
community like Colorado's capital contains many buildings 
that should be condemned, surely a city that has become sta- 
tionary or that has begun itself to decrease in population 
would contain at least two buildings unfit for further occu- 
pancy. The new buildings needed for junior high schools 
would therefore not be additional expense, but would be 
taking the place of outworn structures that would have to 
be replaced anyhow. 

But most of our American cities are growing in popula- 
tion or wealth or both. Others that are not increasing in 
total population are growing in number of school children. 
Many of our Western cities that were formerly made up 
almost entirely of adults now have a normal population of 
children. In such communities a new school building is 
needed every few years. Long Beach, California, a city of 
40,000 people, has built on an average one school building 
every year for the past twenty years. This is not at all an 



56 the: junior high school 

unusual case. In such cities, to construct two or four junior 
high schools instead of so many ward or grade buildings, 
would not entail any additional expense whatever. The 
present ward buildings when relieved of their seventh and 
eighth grades would be commodious enough to accommo- 
date the normal growth in school population for several 
years. The junior high school buildings would merely ab- 
sorb the excess growth of school children, and would be in 
lieu of grade school buildings. 

7. Conservatism of the public. The greatest obstacle 
to the success of the junior high school idea is the conserva- 
tism of the public. It has not been difficult to convince 
educators of the desirability of introducing the plan. But 
fathers and mothers and the great mass of adults look with 
disfavor upon changes in our educational system. To the 
enthusiastic teacher it seems incredible that there are still 
to be found large numbers of people who regard anything 
besides the three "r"s as the "frills" of education. There 
are those who regard with disfavor the high school, indus- 
trial education, the kindergarten, playground work, agricul- 
tural courses, athletics, college training, dramatics, manual 
training, printing and newspaper courses, domestic science 
and art, and commercial education, to say nothing of the 
newer things that educators regard as essential. It takes 
years — aye, generations — for these things to get into the 
blood of a people. It is no wonder that the people look upon 
the junior high school with apathy and in some cases with 
actual hostility. 

There can be only one answer to this objection; namely, 
that all new things have been opposed. But by one method 
or another, great, compelling institutions become established, 
take root, and grow. In one community a campaign of en- 
lightenment may bring about adoption of the thing desired. 



OBJECTIONS ANSWERED 57 

In another community the board of education may establish 
it by main force, and continue it in existence until opposition 
ceases. In still another community it may be brought about 
quietly and without any violent change through a mere 
alteration of the curriculum;. In one state it has been virtu- 
ally compelled by state legislation giving financial aid to 
those communities establishing the institution. Occasion- 
ally the chamber of commerce or some local philanthropist 
brings about the change by financial or other assistance. 

Finally, the junior high school idea is in the air. Edu- 
cators are thinking hard about it; universities are offering 
courses treating of it ; and many school administrators have 
just put it into their school systems. The leaders and advo- 
cates of the movement are multiplying rapidly. The public 
cannot long resist what is proving to be such a strong factor 
in the proper education of the new generation. 



CHAPTER FOUR 

EFFECT OF THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL MOVE- 
MENT UPON THE ELEMENTARY GRADES 

We have now carried the discussion of the junior high 
school movement through three of its phases : The causes 
giving rise to it, its history, and the obstacles to its success. 
There now remains to be discussed the effect of the move- 
ment upon the elementary school grades. Our exposition 
of those effects will reveal the facts that the foundational 
subjects will have to be very largely covered in grades I-VI, 
that kindergarten training will become compulsory, that 
school attendance will have to be better enforced, that all- 
year school sessions are already being carried on, that there 
is existing a movement for increasing greatly the excellence 
of our teachers, that more emphasis is being placed on teach- 
ing pupils how to study, that certain specific changes in the 
elementary curriculum are being made and others are sure 
to be made, and that non-essentials in the subjects taught 
will have to be eliminated. 

1. Foundational subjects largely covered in grades 
I-VI. If secondary school work is to be begun in the first 
year of the junior high school, then the foundational courses 
must be completed in the grades preceding it. Of course, 
this does not mean that the work of eight grades must be 
compressed into six years. Unfortunately it has been repre- 
sented to the public that the new system is to bear down 
heavily upon the children, overcrowding them with study 
and overtaxing their tender strength. It has been pictured 
to us that babes and innocent children who should be spend- 
ing their time in joyful play will be rendered nervous and 

58 



EFFECT UPON ELEMENTARY GRADES 59 

prematurely serious by the pitiless taskmasters, trying to do 
the work of eight grades in six years. 

As a matter of fact it never should have required eight 
years to complete the eight grades of the common schools. 
The old courses of study, the old branches of study, and in 
cases the textbooks have been padded and repeated so as to 
keep the children busy for eight years, when they could have 
done, without strain, all the really foundational work in six 
years. 

The pre-secondary education of our public schools should 
provide the pupil with the tools by which cultural and voca- 
tional education are to be worked out later. The pupil is to 
be able to read silently and with rapidity the books on 
scientific, literary, and historical subjects that will contain 
the messages and suggestions of secondary education. He 
is to be able to work things out for himself with the aid of a 
dictionary only. He is to be capable of obtaining a secondary 
education if left alone on an island with merely the books 
relevant to the subjects, a library, including dictionaries and 
encyclopedias. He is not only to be able to read with ease 
and facility, but also to write so that others can read the 
record of his thoughts and so that he himself at a later time 
can also decipher his writings. This writing will include 
not only the formation of his letters and other characters, 
but the spelling of words correctly, the composition of sen- 
tences and their punctuation — so that no misunderstanding 
can ever arise as to what his writings actually mean. Besides 
being able to express his thoughts on paper, he is to be 
able to express them clearly in oral speech. 

Foundational education must also include facility and 
accuracy in computations that involve the fundamental 
operations of arithmetic — addition, subtraction, multiplica- 
tion, and division — and that involve fractional as well as 



6o the; junior high school 

whole numbers. In this age of expressing fractional num- 
bers by the decimal system, the pupil should master deci- 
mals and possibly percentage in the elementary grades. 
There are certain other foundational ideas and concepts that 
should be acquired — such as the place ideas of geography, 
the fundamental concept of the universe, the historical con- 
cept that we are living at the end of a past that stretches 
back hundreds and thousands of years, the political concept 
that we are a part of a state governed by regularly consti- 
tuted authorities, the nature sense that we are related to all 
creatures in the world of nature, the feeling of physical 
health and the knowledge of the laws that govern it, and the 
vocational idea. These are all fundamental. The body and 
the mind must be trained through physical education and 
manual training. 

That this foundation can be laid in six school years must 
be patent to an impartial observer. That the physical and 
mental growth through the progress of advancing age is 
more fundamental than even the acquisition of knowledge is 
also patent. The amount of knowledge to be acquired in 
the elementary school should not retard the child beyond 
the six or seven years laid down by nature as the time to 
mature the six-year-old into an adolescent. Fortunately we 
have data now to show that children can in six years 
acquire the foundational education described above. 

2. Kindergarten preparation required. We hesitate 
somewhat to use the expression "preparation" in connection 
with any period of education. The newer conception of edu- 
cation that makes the schooling period not a preparation for 
real life, but real life itself, meets with ready acceptance by 
the author. The child is as really living as is the mature 
man. And yet, without denying this truth, can we not 
regard each period of life as a preparation for all the sue- 



EFFECT UPON ELEMENTARY GRADES 6l 

ceeding periods? The mind, as well as the body, may be 
carefully prepared to do certain tasks; or it may be unpre- 
pared to do certain tasks. If it is unprepared at this time to 
do certain tasks, then it may be prepared for those tasks by a 
certain course of training. In this sense we may speak of 
the kindergarten training as preparing for the foundational 
work, the foundational training as preparation for a voca- 
tional curriculum, the vocational training as preparation for 
the pursuit of the particular vocation aimed at. In turn, the 
practice of that vocation might become a preparation for 
some other vocation to be pursued later. In this way every 
course of training enters into the fiber of the man and pre- 
pares him for well-rounded mature manhood. 

The rapid and persistent growth of kindergartens is 
resulting in establishing the kindergarten year of training as 
a regular part of the public school course. In some cities 
today a parent would no more think of sending his child to 
the first grade without a year of kindergarten training than 
most parents would think of sending their children to the sec- 
ond grade without their having had a year of primary grade 
schooling. The laws may some time make it possible for 
school authorities to require one year of kindergarten as 
preparation for the primary class. And unless the child 
receives at home the training of mind and hand necessary 
to do first-grade work, the school should require that it be 
done in a "sub-first" grade. We realize that all the prob- 
lems connected with kindergarten have not been solved, but 
it is coming to be generally recognized that the child gets 
in it something that he needs and something that he does 
not ordinarily get elsewhere. 

It is outside the province of this book to argue for a 
change in the kindergarten to adapt the work to the 
needs of the first grade, or to argue for a change 



62 THD JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

in the primary so that the powers acquired in the 
the kindergarten will not be dissipated or left undeveloped. 
It is sufficient to know that these adaptations are being 
worked out to the great benefit of the children. In the new 
curriculums the kindergarten training is useful and usable. 
It becomes the first school grade, taking the child at five 
years of age. When he becomes proficient, when he has 
acquired the abilities aimed at, ^he is promoted to the first 
primary, which may now be called the second step or grade. 

3. School attendance better enforced. In section one 
of this chapter, we outlined the mental and physical develop- 
ment to be required for entrance to the junior high school. 
This standard is the minimum requirement to be exacted of 
the normal child having a normal opportunity. It has been 
tested and found possible of accomplishment in six years, 
beginning at the age of six. We shall now describe the con- 
ditions which would make it easier to accomplish the devel- 
opment in six years. If all these conditions are present, ioo 
per cent of normal children should reach the junior high 
school at twelve years of age in ioo per cent mental and 
physical condition. Practically all children slightly below 
normal at the beginning of school age should make their 
grades in the process of these six years of schooling and 
should enter the junior high school with their first grade 
classmates. Those above normal or above the average could 
acquire the knowledge required and the necessary develop- 
ment in six years, even though several of the conditions 
described in this chapter were lacking. 

The first condition is a year, more or less, of kindergarten 
training as a foundation for the work of the primary. This 
year of work should constitute Step One of a regular series 
of seven steps leading to the junior high school. Steps Two 
to Seven, inclusive, would then include the six years of grade 



EFFECT UPON ELEMENTARY GRADES 63 

school work in which the tools should be acquired — tools 
that will serve to build the superstructure of secondary edu- 
cation as carried on in the schools, or will, in a pinch, so to 
speak, serve to build a vocational education and a cultural 
education, while the pupil is earning a livelihood, if the 
builder has the strength of character necessary. 

The second condition is regular school attendance. A 
large percentage of retardation is brought about by failure 
to attend school regularly. A day's absence can not easily 
be made up; a week's absence may so break the continuity 
of the mental development that the individual will feel the 
gap through life. The wound may heal, but the scar will be 
painfully apparent. A month's absence is in many cases 
fatal: the pupil would do well to repeat the whole semes- 
ter's work rather than try to struggle through with the 
handicap. Happy is that pupil who lives in a 
community where promotions are made every eight or ten 
weeks ; or, better still, perhaps, where Dr. Frederick Burk's 
anti-lockstep methods prevail. This injury is just as great 
whether the absence comes all in one large block or is scat- 
tered along through the semester a day or a half day at a 
time. Nor does this interruption in consecutive mental de- 
velopment take account of the injury to the habits of work 
sustained by the pupil. If anything, this weakening of the 
habit of continuous application is more injurious to the 
pupil than is the damage to the continuity of his mental 
development. 

Aside from the loss to the individual, one must consider 
the loss to society and to the State. Nearly every state in 
the Union has a compulsory-attendance law, and it may be 
assumed that the State and society regard a common school 
education as vital to their interests, else they would not be 
so insistent on enacting laws rendering it compulsory and 



64 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

in some cases actually writing it into the constitution. The 
State, it is said, regards an educated electorate as necessary 
to the perpetuity of democratic government. Many of the 
evils that have befallen popular government are traceable to 
the lack of a common school education on the part of the 
voters. We may assume, then, that society through the 
organization of the state is in deadly earnest when it enacts 
laws compelling parents to send their children to the public 
schools until those children secure an education. 

Regular attendance on the part of every pupil every day 
that school is in session is essential to the welfare of the 
individual and of society. Self-interest of the individual 
demands it ; society, with all the authority of organized gov- 
ernment, requires it by drastic laws and the exercise of its 
irresistible police power. 

4. An all-year school session. The normal child with 
a normal opportunity may still find it inconvenient to attend 
school in certain seasons. Many children find it harmful to 
their health to brave the winter's severe cold and snow; 
others have to stay out to help with the planting or with 
the harvests ; while still others need their vacations not in 
the summer, but in the winter, spring, or fall. Then, there 
is a large group of children who find the long summer vaca- 
tion irksome and unprofitable. It is believed by some edu- 
cators and parents that children would be better of! if they 
could attend school through the year, with short vacations 
of a week or a fortnight at regular intervals, say at Christ- 
mas, Easter, in early July, and in October. The year might 
be divided into four or more equal terms, and promotions 
made more frequently than at present. 

Suppose that the year were divided into six terms of eight 
weeks each, and that one week's vacation should be given as 
indicated above. There would still be a few holidays scat- 



EFFECT UPON ELEMENTARY GRADES 65 

tered through the year sufficient to break the monotony. 
Then let it be provided that four terms' attendance be the 
minimum required by law. Forty weeks' work might then 
be equivalent to a grade. This number of weeks' work 
would be somewhat more than the average at present. While 
thirty-five or thirty-six is the average for the cities, twenty 
seven or twenty-eight is the average for rural districts and 
smaller towns. If a child in a village school can now com- 
plete a grade in twenty-eight weeks, surely forty weeks 
should be ample anywhere. 

The six-grade elementary course could then with ease be 
completed by the normal child in six years of forty weeks 
each. The subnormal or the slower pupil might take six 
years of forty-eight weeks each to do the work. The bright- 
est pupils might possibly do the six grades in six years, some 
of only thirty-two weeks attendance and others forty weeks, 
or some of forty-eight weeks and others of sixteen weeks. 
This would give opportunity for the parents of the brightest 
pupils to travel with their children. Or pupils, needing the 
country life, might be sent to a ranch or farm for a few 
months at a time when the weather would be agreeable. One 
could multiply indefinitely the advantages to be derived from 
such a plan. 

Some decided advantages in the plan as a whole should 
be pointed out as bearing upon the success of the six-six, 
or six-three-three, or six-three-four plan that we have been 
advocating. We have repeatedly said that it is vital to this 
plan that children enter upon the secondary course at twelve 
years of age; that is, at, or immediately before, the begin- 
ning of adolescence. It is also much to be desired that all 
pupils complete the foundational courses of study before 
they enter the secondary school. Any arrangement that will 



66 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

contribute to making both of these possible should receive 
the favorable consideration of educators and the public. 

There is the case of the child whose parents move fre- 
quently, perhaps from one state to another. These pupils 
often form a considerable part of our Far-Western pupils. 
In moving they find it difficult to get an exact adjustment. 
Many Western schools have an established rule of placing 
the newcomer in a class at least a half grade below the one 
which he would have been entitled to enter in his Eastern 
home. This is a common practice, and has much justifica- 
tion from the point of view of the school teacher and in 
advantages to the pupil. Ordinarily it takes some time to 
become adjusted to a new school and a new plan of work. 
It ought not, however, in all conscience, to take a half year. 
If the terms are short, say of two months' duration, the 
pupil will be put back only eight weeks, and these eight 
weeks he can easily make up in one forty-eight-week school 
year. 

While not essential to the success of the six-year elemen- 
itary school plan, an all-year school of forty-eight weeks with 
six promotions to the year, will contribute greatly to making 
it function properly and adequately. 

5. Excellent teachers employed. In the new system 
of things we must have teachers who are in sympathy with 
progress even though it clash with their preconceived ideas. 
For instance, a teacher who has not been teaching percent- 
age in the sixth grade might conceivably set the whole 
weight of her convictions against succeeding in getting the 
pupils to grasp the subject in that grade. But most normal- 
trained teachers are open-minded and glad to try sympatheti- 
cally any plan that looks toward a more practical education 
:for her pupils. Normal schools have in several cases 
adapted their organization to meet the needs of an elemen- 



EFFECT UTON ELEMENTARY GRADKS 67 

tary course of six years. It is important that the co-opera- 
tion of teacher-training institutions be secured in furthering 
the success of the six-six plan. 

The kindergarten teacher of the future should receive in 
normal school a general professional training that will in- 
clude methods in the lower primary grades. She should do 
some practice teaching in the primary — sufficient to get the 
point of view of the primary teacher and to understand the 
needs of the children. Only in this way will she realize 
what is expected of her in the kindergarten. While this is 
an age of specialization, it is also an age of co-operation, of 
doing things by team-work. The teacher of Step One must 
feel that she is doing a foundation work without which the 
steps higher up cannot be expected to succeed. 

The primary teacher should likewise study in the normal 
school the methods and aims of the kindergarten. In teach- 
ing pupils of Step Two, she should have in mind what has 
been accomplished in the previous year of the child's life. 
She should be careful not to bore the pupils with doing the 
things they have already done; but knowing the faculties 
that have been trained in the kindergarten, she should give 
new work to continue the development. Constant associa- 
tion with Step One teachers will keep her fresh in the knowl- 
edge of the accomplishments of her pupils. Interchange of 
teachers may occasionally be for the best. Certainly primary 
teachers may profit by having the kindergarten teachers 
come into their rooms to give certain lessons in concentra- 
tion, motor control, handwork, etc. 

All along the line the teachers must adapt themselves and 
their methods to the new point of view. The uppermost 
thought must be: We must lead the pupils through the 
foundational work in six years; we must not be slaves to 
our textbooks; we must feed the child's mind and body as 



68 the: junior high school 

fast as its development will permit; we must not withhold 
what the child is ready for, we must not repeat when repeti- 
tion will deaden. The motto must be : See to it that the 
child works up to its full capacity. Anything short of that 
is wasted time. 

6. Teaching how to study. The largest problem is 
teaching the pupils how to work. In most cases this means 
teaching them how to study. However, it may be easier to 
teach other forms of work than study. The same principles 
are involved: Concentration, overcoming inertia, keeping 
at the thing, an ever present feeling of progressing in the 
job, revolving the matter in one's mind, relating it to one's 
store of information, analyzing the problem, getting the solu- 
tion, reviewing what has been done. In these days when 
supervised study is the topic uppermost in the minds of 
teachers, and with several good books on the subject, school 
men and women ought to find it an easy matter to think out 
or work out methods for teaching children how to study and 
work. 

The best time to teach children how to work is in the 
grades, and before they have formed bad habits. Some one 
has said that it is worse for the individual to get a lesson in 
the wrong way than not to try to get it at all. The corollary 
is that a bad habit once formed is harder to overcome than 
a good habit is to acquire. At any rate, bad habits of work 
should be discouraged, and every effort made to help the 
pupil early to form good habits. 

Good methods of work can be learned in the kindergarten. 
Wasting or scattering one's interests and attention should 
be prevented. The teacher herself should set a good example. 
One thing at a time, is a very good rule. The most orderly 
school room is where the hum of industry is ever present. 
The teacher must early learn to distinguish disorderly noise 



EFFECT UPON ELEMENTARY GRADES 69 

from orderly noise, a vacant look from rapt attention, a 
mind carelessly passing from one thing to another from a 
mind with a definite goal in view, accidental success from 
organized success. No matter how much the teacher may 
believe in free and undirected work from her pupils, she 
must understand from the beginning that many children 
must be led time and time again through the process of doing 
a piece of work — which is, of course, solving a problem. 
Originality is a quality decidedly to be developed and en- 
couraged; but ability to work, to study, and to solve prob- 
lems is of greater importance. 

There is not space in this brief section to go into methods 
of teaching pupils how to study. Nevertheless, it occurs to 
the writer that the approach to the task may be most easily 
made through teaching the pupil how to work at some task 
other than getting a lesson out of a book. Some of our 
most difficult problems are not propounded to us from the 
pages of a book. There is fundamentally no difference be- 
tween these problems: Roping a trunk, reading (remember 
that reading is getting the thought) a passage of Browning, 
solving a problem in algebra, sewing a patch on an apron, 
building a house out of blocks, writing a sentence using the 
word "cat." But there is a good deal of difference in the 
ease with which you can teach a child how to do these vari- 
ous tasks. There is less concentration required of a person 
in working with an object that he can reach all around than 
with one that is on a flat surface ; with the latter than with 
one that you can neither see nor feel, that exists only in the 
mind. 

Let us illustrate by reference to a study of art. Suppose 
you wish to bring to a person's mind a concept of a battle. 
The easiest way would be to take him to an elevation and 
let him witness a real battle; the next would be to act it 



yo the; junior high school, 

upon a stage; the next to have it represented by statues of 
men and figures of cannon, etc. ; the next would be in bas- 
relief ; the next in painting ; and most difficult of all, in writ- 
ten or printed language. 

Likewise the approach to study should be first with real 
things, then with symbols in the order we have mentioned 
above. Also this is true with the method used in teaching 
the child to solve problems, to work, to concentrate. The 
earliest task in the kindergarten is to construct something 
real, then something that resembles the real, then a picture, 
finally a verbal description or explanation of the thing con- 
structed. In the same order will he get his thoughts, his 
ideas of things. 

If study is approached in this way, the child will have 
acquired good habits of study before he reaches the point 
where he is to get lessons out of a book. When he does 
reach that point, he will apply the same principles and habits 
to studying a printed lesson that he has been applying to an 
object lesson. He will meet with the same success. He will 
be able to study effectively. 

7. Specific changes in the elementary courses of 
study. Assuming that the subjects will remain the same 
as in the immediate past, it may be worth while (pending 
the evaluation of these subjects) to suggest some necessary 
changes in the euriculum brought about by making the sec- 
ondary courses start with the completion of the sixth grade. 
Several foundational subjects that had been delayed until 
the seventh or eighth grade must be hereafter taught before 
the seventh grade is reached, and other adjustments will 
have to be made. 

In many schools oral reading from seventh and eighth 
readers has been carried on in the corresponding grades. 
Oral reading as a formal subject will close with the end of 



EFFECT UPON ELEMENTARY GRADES 7 1 

the sixth grade. When one considers the small use a person 
makes of oral reading, the wonder is that it has continued 
so long to occupy the serious attention of upper-grade pupils. 
Spelling as a subject occupying a recitation period will, and 
should, be discontinued before the end of the new elemen- 
tary course. By careful measurement Ayers has ascertained 
that sixth-grade pupils can spell correctly 92 per cent of the 
975 words that the average intelligent adult uses in writing. 
One does not necessarily need to know how to spell words 
that he never writes but uses only in speaking. The eighty- 
five words that a particular pupil of the sixth grade does not 
know how to spell correctly should be ascertained in each 
individual case. That pupil may then learn in ten lessons 
how to spell the words that he did not know how to spell. 
What drudgery and loss of time for a pupil to study and 
recite on words that he has known how to spell for years! 
Besides, there is still some hope that a sensible form of 
simplified spelling may come into fashion in the near future. 
Geography miust be carried lower in the grades, and all 
the essential information conveyed in our present textbooks 
must be gathered by the pupil before reaching the seventh 
grade. This may necessitate the rewriting of our textbooks 
in more simple language. The large output of easily under- 
stood geographical readers that we are at present enjoying 
will contribute greatly to the success of this new plan. Books 
of travel, descriptions of customs and manners of foreign 
people, stories of the industries, interesting accounts of 
things grown from the soil, bird books and animal books, 
and pictures that really tell things — all adapted to the under- 
standing of elementary school children — are pouring from 
the press. God bless the devoted men and women that are 
toiling ceaselessly to bring things within the comprehension 
of the little folks ! 



72 the; junior high school 

It is pleasing to note the success that teachers are having 
in teaching addition and subtraction in the second grade, 
multiplication and division in the third. The fourth grader 
masters these operations, memorizes the tables, and passes 
on to fractions. The fifth and sixth graders with a good 
foundation in arithmetic do the processes of fractions, deci- 
mals, and percentage. True, they cannot untangle the com- 
plicated problems often found in textbooks (but never found 
in actual business) ; but, if the textbook writers really wish 
to demonstrate their ingenuity in making up puzzles, let 
them insert them in books on higher mathematics or in com- 
mercial calculuses, books intended to develop logic and pro- 
found reasoning faculties. We are not expecting the 
child to perform all possible operations in the grade school ; 
we wish merely to give the child command of the tools with 
which to work. Anyhow, it is an injustice to the pupil to 
make him work out nerve-racking problems by arithmetic, 
when he is to be shown an easier way later through algebra. 

Finally, history (if the biographies and exciting events 
contained in historical readers can be classed as history) 
may be begun in earnest in the fifth grade, read and studied. 
Take any one of the several very effective books now on the 
market, work through the stories and biographies of the 
period of discoveries and the colonial period in the first 
semester, and through the national period in the second 
semester. The pupil will then have a good grasp of the 
story of the United States. A good textbook on the back- 
ground of American history in Europe to the settlement of 
Virginia could be completed in the first three fourths of the 
sixth grade. The last one fourth could be spent in studying 
the settlement and development of the colonies and the 
causes, events, and immediate results of the Revolution. A 
year of real national history, including civics, could be re- 



EFFECT UPON ELEMENTARY GRADES 73 

quired of first, second, or third year junior high school 
pupils. This last year's work could be so thoroughly done 
that senior high school American history could be a fairly 
analytical study of some short but important period — as the 
post-Civil War period — or of some important movement or 
institutional development. 

8. Non-essentials in particular subjects eliminated. 
It is highly important to the success of the six-year elemen- 
tary curriculum as well as to the children of our country 
that the work of eliminating the padding should be prose- 
cuted with vigor. Stripped of the non-essentials, most com- 
mon school subjects can be mastered in the first six grades 
without crowding or overworking the pupils. Thanks to 
several enterprising school men and textbook producers, we 
now have good sets of "minimum essentials" in nearly all 
the subjects. Nevertheless, this pruning must go further, 
and more dead limbs must be cut from the branches. 

It seems to the author that geography, history, arith- 
metic, English composition, manual training, and art need 
complete revision. What joy it would be to lop off from 
elementary school geography all the motions of the earth, 
moon, winds, and currents, also names of insignificant capi- 
tals, rivers, capes, bays, and the impossible-to-be-remem- 
bered minerals and manufactured articles of the hundred or 
more states and countries of the world ! An excellent eighth- 
grade teacher confessed to the author that he had to look up 
very carefully the causes of the seasons, eclipses, tides, 
winds, and ocean currents every time he came to these sub- 
jects in his teaching of geography, and he had been teaching 
this grade for twelve years ! What joy to lop off names and 
dates of discoverers and explorers that mean nothing to us ; 
names, dates, locations, and misfortunes of all the colonial 
enterprises ; Indian massacres back in New England and 



74 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

Virginia ; the colonial wars ; battles, generals, size of armies, 
maneuvers, terms of surrender; expositions, presidential 
trips, cabinet officers, fires, floods, and other disasters ! What 
joy to lop off apothecaries' and avoirdupois weights, paper- 
ing and plastering of imaginary walls, multiplication and 
addition of denominate numbers, bank and true discount, 
square and cube root, longitude and time! And so with 
description and narration, exposition and argument, when 
the pupils cannot even write complex, compound, or even 
simple sentences! Then there is the making of hatracks, 
bootjacks, and bric-a-brac, with planes, vises, and draw 
knives, when the home will never need the useless product 
and will never possess a single one of the tools ! It would 
seem better to learn how to sharpen pencils with a jack- 
knife and to use a screwdriver, a handsaw, and a hammer. 
Lastly, how much time we waste and what bad habits we 
form in dabbling in paints, making incongruous and absurd 
valentines, paper napkins, masks, penwipers, and calendars ! 

From the foregoing paragraphs it is evident that much 
courageous, painstaking work is before us, but we must 
give credit for mluch that has already been done. A good 
start has been made ; but we must not stop until the task is 
finished. The junior high school movement is reacting on 
the elementary school. The time is auspicious, the oppor- 
tunity is inviting. Where are the daring spirits to blaze the 
way? They will make mistakes, they will be severely criti- 
cized, their plans will have to be reviewed and thoughtfully 
worked out by practical teachers in the field ; but eventually, 
all credit to those who dare to be pathfinders ! 

Summary. With this chapter we close our discussion of 
the junior high school movement. We have analyzed the 
causes that gave rise to it and that justify its continuance. 
We have briefly traced its history. We have examined the 



EFFECT UPON ELEMENTARY GRADES 75 

objections that have been raised against it. We have dis- 
cussed the actual and prospective changes in the elementary 
school necessitated by this movement. 

We proceed now to a treatment of the junior high school 
as a functioning institution. 



CHAPTER FTVE 

COURSES OF STUDY 

It was asserted in the first chapter of this book that four 
of society's many problems are to be solved, and to some 
extent are being solved, by the junior high school as an insti- 
tution. We have tried to give the reader a clear idea of those 
problemls. Later we showed that the rapid adoption of the 
junior high school by so many cities and towns and its 
advocacy by so many educators have made its success all 
but certain. Through all these practical applications the 
school has remained true to its purposes, although it has not 
in every case tried to do all that is expected of it. Mean- 
while there have arisen many objections, obstacles, and 
aspersions to which we were compelled to devote a chapter. 
The objections have been answered, the aspersions refuted, 
and plans given for removing the obstacles. The reor- 
ganization of secondary education and the establishment of 
a junior high school have necessitated many changes in the 
elementary schools. Some of these adjustments have already 
been started and are well under way. For the others we 
have offered such suggestions as our limited space and the 
exceeding newness of the problems would permit. 

The junior high school is not a panacea for all social and 
educational ills. For the limited ills set forth we believe 
that this school will prove, and is to a very considerable ex- 
tent already proving, a cure. It remains for us, in the chap- 
ters that follow, to show how the junior high school acts in 
operation, how it meets the demands placed upon it. We 
shall discuss these matters under the head of curriculums, 
principal and teachers, teaching in the school, administra- 

76 



COURSES OF STUDY /7 

tion, and relations with the higher secondary school. Finally 
we shall sketch' our ideas of an ideal junior high school. 

In discussing the subjects to be taught in junior high 
school we adhere to the terminology as defined by the Com- 
mittee on College Entrance Requirements. "Program of 
studies'' refers to all the subjects taught in the secondary 
school without reference to organization of these subjects. 
A "subject" is a branch of learning separate and distinct in 
subject-matter, as Latin, algebra, or history. A "course" is 
the subject-matter of a subject offered within a definite 
period of time, as first year Latin, second year algebra, 
ancient history, (since this course by general usage is known 
to be a definite year unit of high school study). A "curri- 
culum" is any systematic arrangement of courses which ex- 
tends through a number of years and which leads to a 
diploma of graduation. 

I. Preliminary considerations. Two phases of the 
program of studies demand attention: What subjects are 
to be taught? When is each course to be taught? In 
answering the first question, one must bear in mind the 
psychology of the adolescent student and the effect upon the 
evolution of society. If a subject does not contribute richly 
to the development of the boy or girl, or will not serve to 
advance society, it should be discarded, no matter how much 
the children may like it or how many teachers have pre- 
pared to teach it. The fact that the college or university 
may require for entrance a certain subject of small value 
will serve to bolster up that subject for a while; but sec- 
ondary school authorities should endeavor to have the col- 
leges change their entrance requirements in respect to such 
a subject and should plan to eliminate it after a reasonable 
time for adjustment. 

Not only must we determine what subjects are to be 



yS TH£ JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

taught, but we must also decide when they are to be taught, 
at what age, in what year of the curriculum. Here it must 
be kept in mind that many subjects are to be left for the 
senior high school and junior college or even for the uni- 
versity. Other subjects can be best taught in the junior 
high school. In considering each individual subject, we 
shall try to determine to what school it properly belongs and, 
if to the lower secondary school, to what year. 

In making out a curriculum to suit a particular student, 
it must be decided how many courses he should carry. This 
will depend upon the capability of the student and upon his 
needs. Some pupils will be able to carry six courses suc- 
cessfully, but may need only five to complete their plan of 
work. Others may be able to carry only four, but may need 
five. In the latter case the course must be adjusted to the 
boy's capabilities so that he can carry as many courses as he 
needs. For him much extra material would have to be elim- 
inated. For instance, if the reading of five books a year 
should be the normal requirement in English, his require- 
ment would have to be reduced to four or to three. Or if 
David Copper-field were the standard, he might substitute 
Oliver Twist or some other shorter and easier novel. On 
the whole, however, it may be safely predicted that the nor- 
mal student will be able to carry as many normal courses as 
he needs. 

A decision based upon the experience of several cities 
that begin the secondary course with the seventh grade indi- 
cates that through the intermediate high school age — twelve 
to fifteen — pupils successfully carry twenty-five recitation 
hours per week where each lesson is two-thirds the difficulty 
of a senior high school lesson. In the schools of Pomona, a 
pupil earns in the first three years of the secondary school 
an average of two and two-thirds credits per year, in the 



COURSES OF STUDY 79 

next two years (eleventh and twelfth grades) he earns an 
average of four credits per year, and in the last two years 
(thirteenth and fourteenth grades), an average of five. If 
the curriculums for the junior high school were based on 
this plan, the normal adolescent would be expected to carry 
successfully five courses, each for one year and a half. A 
course carried for one year and a half would be equivalent 
to the same /course carried for one year in senior high 
school, where only four different subjects are taken at one 
time. Expressed in another way, the senior high school 
student does as much in one fourth of a year as a junior 
high school pupil does in one third of a year. 

There is also the matter of election of courses. Shall 
there be a free election of courses by the pupil? or, shall 
there be certain required courses ? If the pupil has an elec- 
tion, how often may he elect? Must he continue an elected 
course until he finishes it, or may he drop it at the end of a 
semester and elect another in its place. 

We wish to advocate quite a large freedom of election by^ 
the pupil under the guidance of parent and teacher or of 
vocational adviser. One or two courses should be required 
of every pupil unless he is thorough master of them. The 
most generally required courses are two years each of physi- 
cal education and English. Even if these are in general 
required, it w 7 ould be unwise to impose them on a student 
who does not need them. The other four subjects should be 
elective; but a pupil should be expected to take a course 
that he needs. If a boy has not mastered the fundamentals 
of arithmetic, he should be expected to take such a course 
in junior high school. Hence, we need a wise counselor to 
help the student in electing subjects and courses. 

We should advocate that a pupil be required to take a 
course until he has completed it or has put on it a reasonable 



8o THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

amount of effort. Here, again, the youth needs a guide and 
adviser in the principal or parent. Instinctively a pupil 
wants to drop a course in which he is failing or which he 
dislikes. He also wants to avoid the subjects taught by the 
teacher whom he dislikes. In these matters a principal will 
exercise careful discretion. It is by no means certain that 
a pupil should be compelled to take a subject with a teacher 
whom he dislikes. We do not compel our college or uni- 
versity boy to do it ; yet he surely could be expected to over- 
come his prejudice more easily than the early adolescent. 

We must not forget that the junior high school is the 
trying-out school where young people are expected to find 
themselves. We must, then, be insistent upon exposing the 
student to as many subjects as possible without allowing 
him to become fickle or flabby, changeable and always seek- 
ing the easiest course. 

2. Physical education. From the principle set forth in 
the first chapter it must be evident that the subject of physi- 
cal education should have a large place in the intermediate 
high school. The purpose of the course is to develop the 
body, to make it fit for the uses for which God's plan seems 
to intend it. Athletics and gymnastics are by no means all 
there is to this, the subject of paramount importance. 
Schools should attack this problem in a scientific spirit, with 
the fullest appreciation of its worth and value to the happi- 
ness of the individual pupils, to the improvement of the 
race, and to the health and morality of society. Looking at 
the subject in this way, we find that it deserves full discus- 
sion at this point. 

There is a theoretical or "book" side to physical educa- 
tion. Physiology and hygiene have long had a place in the 
school curriculum. That place must be enlarged and 
strengthened. Physiology might well be offered in the sec- 



COURSES OF STUDY 8 1 

ondary school as a formal subject, independently or in con- 
nection with biology. But somewhere in the junior high 
school pupils should be taught the functions of the organs of 
the human body, their pathology and hygienic care. In 
such work the boys and girls should be in separate classes, 
the boys under a man teacher, the girls under a woman 
teacher. In this way the right kind of appeal may be made 
to the young people. 

There should be an interesting, instructive, and thorough- 
ly trustworthy textbook. The book selected should be writ- 
ten, not with an idea of frightening boys, but with the seri- 
ous purpose of informing them on matters pertaining to 
their health and strength. Science does not bear out the 
scare-head statements of old physiologists on alcoholic 
drinks, narcotics, and stimulants, or the still more unreliable 
twaddle of quacks concerning the results of sexual errors. 
The plain truth is sufficiently alarming. Boys frequently 
point to the facts that there are many healthy old men who 
smoke tobacco and drink liquor, and scientific physiologies 
must square with these facts. 

The physiologies should have something to say about diet, 
candies, gum chewing, endurance running, cosmetics, self- 
poisoning, bad air, soiled underwear, children's lunches, 
over-exercise for girls, greediness, climbing stairs, regular 
habits of bowels and kidneys, lying in bed in the morning, 
irregular eating, late parties, thin dresses, care at the 
monthly periods, incorrect posture in reading, decaying 
teeth, bicycle riding, tight lacing, tight shoes, high heels, 
coffee drinking, standing long, straining the vocal cords, 
abrasing the skin, abuse of the hair, neglect of colds, hard 
blowing of the nose, lack of sleep, unnecessary exposure of 
the head to the sun (especially dangerous among light-com- 
plexioned people), wet feet, over-study, eyestrain, con- 



82 the junior high school 

tagious diseases, mosquitoes and flies, impure food. It will 
be seen that many of these matters refer especially to girls. 
It seems to the writer that undue emphasis has heretofore 
been placed upon dangers to the health of boys, whereas it 
is equally important that emphasis be placed upon dangers 
to the girls. Men are by their very nature and by the out- 
door active life they lead far more immune to constitutional 
ailments. 

In this connection sanitation and community physiology 
should form a part of the intermediate course in physical 
education. The disposal of sewage, the healthfulness of the 
home, the care of public toilets, the purity of the water 
supply, the inspection of public markets and groceries, the 
prevention of factory smoke, the sanitation of bakeries, meat 
markets, confectioneries, and hotel beds, and the quarantine 
of contagious diseases are matters that children should study 
about early in the teens. Closely associated with the pre- 
vention of sickness is the improvement of health. Here the 
selected text should tell of measures to improve the strength 
and virility of the race. Such measures include a wide 
variety of public activities, such as the planting of parks in 
cities ; the growing of shrubbery, flower gardens, and lawns 
about the homes ; recreation centers and athletic clubs ; pub- 
lic baths; paving^and widening of streets, public driveways, 
bridle paths, promenades, water courses ; public excursions 
to the open country and to the mountains; mountain play- 
grounds for children and adults ; "better babies" campaigns ; 
eugenic marriage campaigns ; roof gardens on tenement 
houses; boys' and girls' camps; compulsory military drill 
in schools; county and state; athletic tournaments; and all 
other measures that tend to make the race healthier and 
stronger. 



COURSES OF STUDY 83 

The above courses are to be regarded as theoretical physi- 
cal culture. x\pplied physical education aims to do in school 
all that can be done (1) to keep boys and girls healthy, (2) 
to restore to health those who are not well, (3) to correct 
physical deficiencies, (4) to develop muscle and bodily con- 
trol, (5) to inure the young people to physical labor, (6) 
to develop moral courage and squareness. No system is 
complete or even passably satisfactory unless it does all 
these things well. This is a big program, one not to be 
carried out by a teacher whose sole qualification is a knowl- 
edge of football and a record as a star on a college team. 
The teacher should excel in a seriousness of purpose and a 
fullness of plans on how to accomplish all the points given 
above. 

The author does not presume to know how all these things 
can be done. He does know that they are being done in 
some cities and that they should be done in all, especially in 
those with junior high schools, if the next generation and 
the following generations are to be benefited. There must 
be gymnasiums, shower baths, playgrounds, equipment and 
paraphernalia, testing and measuring machines. Above all, 
there must be a master organizer to plan the work so as to 
reach every pupil — a person who can also act as the 
director. 

How often should formal exercise be required ? For how 
many years? Should credit be given? How long should 
each exercise be? Should the exercises be in the morning, 
afternoon, or after school? May anybody be excused? Can 
other work be substituted for physical culture? Should 
dancing be allowed in school? If so, should it be required 
of children whose parents object to it on moral grounds? 
Should military training be required? Optional? Should 
pupils furnish their own suits, or should the school district 
furnish them? Should girls be permitted to wear silk 



84 TH£ JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

stockings in the gymnasium? Should Rugby, American, 
or soccer football be adopted ? Should girls play basketball ? 
Should boys and girls play together ? Should girls be direct- 
ed by men teachers ? Should physicians and dentists exam- 
ine school pupils? Is a woman nurse preferable, especially 
for girls? These and dozens of other questions must be 
left to the intelligence of the director. It is not the sphere 
of this book to discuss them, much less to .answer them. 
Some of the questions, such as those with regard to years 
in the curriculum and j amount of time, must necessarily 
answer themselves in the very nature of the needs of the 
individual boy or girl. 

3. Manual and sense training. Even a slight study of 
the psychology fof adolescence will reveal the importance of 
sense awakening in that period. With the natural acute- 
ness of the senses of touch, sight, hearing, smell, and taste, 
and of muscularity, at pubescence and on to adulthood, the 
school has a wonderful opportunity to get results from their 
education. We have spoken in the preceding section of 
physical education, which is among other things an edu- 
cator of the muscular sense. We wish in this section to 
discuss the education of the senses of touch, feeling, sight, 
and measurement. 

In no sense has the traditional manual training developed 
these senses to the proper extent. For instance, let us take 
the touch sense /alone. There is as much development of 
this sense in playing a piano or guitar, in writing on a type- 
writer, in painting or drawing, in kneading bread jdough, in 
molding clay, in writing shorthand, or in sewing and knit- 
ting as there is in manual straining. But the possibilities 
are by no means exhausted in all these lines. Take the art 
of reading with the fingers from raised type. Why confine 
this method of reading to the blind? Why should it not be 



COURSES 01- STUDY 85 

taught in school to all children suffering from eye-strain or 
defective vision? If such pupils could be taught to read in 
that way, how much it would save their eyes. 

Reading with the ringers is only one of the many possi- 
bilities of sense training. Accurate measurement with the 
eves is also an undeveloped possibility that could be gen- 
erally tried. This sense can be developed to the extent of 
accurately estimating a room's width, the length of cloth 
or rope, the distance across a field, the height of a tree. To 
distinguish this sense training from others, we may call it 
mensuration. 

A very useful development of the sight is the recognition 
of colors and their proper blending. A great deal is done 
in art along this line; but many boys who do not want art 
could profit by such an eye training. Color matching or 
visual harmony could well find a prominent place in a gen- 
eral course on sense training. 

Sawing boards straight, joining, planing, shaping, lining, 
boring holes, properly driving nails, designing and making a 
piece of furniture — traditional manual training — form only 
a part of sense training. Certainly the time has come to 
evaluate the subject of manual training and to work out a 
richer content for the course. Along with these matters 
may profitably be included such useful arts as wood sawing 
and wood splitting, shoe mending, basket making, mat 
weaving, puttying, paper hanging, plaster mending, calcimin- 
ing, japalacking, and converting worn-out socks into mit- 
tens. 

If such a course can be devised and organized with litt'e 
cost, most superintendents and boards of education will 
gladly make it a required subject in the junior high school. 
Leaving the vocational phase of hand work to the senior 
high school, the course (in sense training for boys may be 



86 the junior high school 

completed in one and one half years in the intermediate 
school. As other matter is constantly added to this course, 
a longer time will have to be provided. Certainly pupils 
can well afford to spend three semesters on this enriched 
subject. If confined to traditional manual training, there 
should be scarcely more than one semester required of boys. 

The place of sense training in the junior high school must 
depend upon the age and development of the boy taking it. 
If boys enter the intermediate school at twelve years of age, 
sense training should be placed as date in the curriculum as 
possible, so that there can be a reasonable certainty that 
adolescence has well set in before the subject is begun. 
I 4. English. In America we lay great stress on the 
teaching of the vernacular. In some English-speaking lands 
the people are not so proud of the mother tongue and not so 
insistent upon its being spoken with a certain inflection or 
even upon using standardized words. In some parts of Eng- 
land, for instance, they are prouder of their brogue than of 
the great universal language; they say that the newspapers 
and railroad travel will soon enough break down differences 
in dialects, and consequently they put forth no conscious 
effort to conform to the standards of good literature and cul- 
tivated conversation. In a land as large as America we 
realize the importance of aiding nature, and our schools 
become the dynamic factor in universalizing the English 
language. Other nations go a step further by the creation 
of academies that speak authoritatively on what is and 
what is not good Spanish, French, or what-not. In the 
United States our schools undertake to teach standard Eng^ 
lish, but each teacher is left to decide for himself what is 
standard. 

English, as a subject to be pursued in the secondary 
schools, covers a number of branches that were formerly 



COURSES OF STUDY 87 

spoken of as separate subjects. We used to have grammar, 
spelling, reading, composition, rhetoric, etymology, oral 
English, literature. Still farther back in the past several 
of these were sub-divided into two or more subjects. The 
tendency of late has been to group all these matters under 
the one head of English. Along with this custom has gone 
the making of English a required subject throughout the 
grade school and the high school. (And now have come in 
very recent years certain additions to the general subject of 
English, such as debate, public speaking, private speaking, 
dramatics, and journalism. Many high schools that require 
four years of English permit pupils to earn additional credits 
in these extra subjects. It would be possible to earn eight 
credits of a necessary fifteen for graduation, in the field of 
English and its related subjects. All these subjects have 
as their main object the improvement of the students in the 
vernacular. 

This tendency has alarmed conservative school men to 
such an extent that a reactionary movement has set in to 
compel English to "keep its place" and not monopolize the 
curriculum. This reaction has set in just at the time when 
a strong progressive current in education is sweeping the 
old subjects off their feet and is threatening to drown those 
whose heaviness prevents them from swimming. Some of 
these may be rescued by clinging to a more active, virile sub- 
ject, and thus may be restored to life after being considered 
for some time dead. Latin and German have a chance in this 
way to survive the strong current of modern progressivism. 
And strangest of all, they may be saved by clinging to their 
greatest competitor for favor — English. We refer, of 
course, to making Latin and German part of the English 
course, to be studied briefly for their value as parents of 
modern English. 



88 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

Makers of curriculums for secondary schools are, there- 
fore, finding the four years of high school entirely inade- 
quate for the mastering of the vernacular. The junior high 
school movement, tending to lengthen the secondary course 
to seven years stretching from the beginning of the seventh 
grade to the end of the junior college, offers us a solution of 
the problem. Pursued as one subject through seven years, 
English can be made to cover conventional English plus 
dramatics, journalism, oral English, public speaking and 
debate, and a semester of backgrounds of English in Rome 
and in Saxon England. 

We arrive at the conclusion that English should be pur- 
sued as a subject through the seven years of the secondary 
school. We believe that it should be made compulsory. But 
if we argue for making it compulsory, we must allow cer- 
tain elections of courses. Better still, the wise teacher will 
give to each pupil what he needs most. Not all by any 
means need exactly the same things. One boy will require 
grammar; another will be so correct in speaking and writ- 
ing that he will not need grammar. Some girl will need 
dramatics, while another will profit more from debate and 
argumentation. Suppose the English courses embraced 
twenty-six semester units as follows: (i) Latin back- 
ground, (2) Anglo-Saxon background, (3) grammar, (4) 
spelling and etymology, (5) oral English, (6) composition, 
(7) heroic narration, (8) heroic poetry, (9) Merchant of 
\ r enice and Julias Caesar, (10) description and narration, 
(11) exposition and argument, (12) history of English 
literature to the Romantic Period, (13) Romantic Period to 
the present day, (14) public speaking, (15) debate, (16) 
journalism, (17) Macbeth and Hamlet, (18) the essay, (19) 
history of American literature, (20) private speaking, (21) 
dramatics, (22) the drama, (23) applied journalism, (24) 



COURSES OF STUDY 89 

the novel, (25) Shakespeare, (26) current literature. Boy 
A may need 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 21. Boy B 
may need 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 17, 18, 24, 25. Both 
boys and all other pupils would take English through the 
seven years. 

It now remains to determine which of these courses shall 
be offered in the junior high school. If certain of these 
courses are less difficult or simpler than others, they should 
precede the more difficult. If some are more adapted to the 
pubescent period, they should be given in the junior high 
school. We may pick 1, 2, 3, 4 as foundational in character 
upon which others have to be built. We find that 5 is 
simpler than 15 or 20; that 6 is simpler than 10, 11, 16, or 
23. It is evident that 7 and 8 are adapted to the period of 
emotional awakening at the beginning of adolescence. We 
may feel quite sure that I, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 belong to the 
intermediate school period ; although we may entertain some 
doubt about Anglo-Saxon backgrounds until the course 
shall have been organized and tried out. Units 9 and 10 
are being taught in junior high school with success, and may 
be left on the borderland, to be taken in junior or senior 
high school as circumstances dictate. 

One more question must be answered. In case a pupil 
needs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 — eight semesters of work — 
how shall he get them in three years ? This question is sus- 
ceptible of just two answers. The most obvious is that he 
should be permitted to take two units at one time until he 
shall have worked through all eight. The second answer is, 
that such a pupil should spend three and one-half or four 
years in the junior high school. He would enter the senior 
high school with probably more than eight of the sixteen 
credits required for entrance to college. 



go TH£ JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

5. Foreign languages. What foreign languages, if 
any, shall be taught in our secondary schools ? Why should 
any foreign language be taught? If any is taught, where 
shall it be placed in the curriculum? How much of each 
language shall be taught? These are questions that are 
challenging the best thought and the widest investigations 
of educators. 

The range of foreign languages thinkable as subjects for 
our secondary schools embraces Greek, Latin, German, 
French, Spanish, Italian, and Russian. These are languages 
said to have cultural value, disciplinary value, or practical 
value to Americans. Greek has by common consent been 
dropped from public secondary schools. The demand for 
it has been so small that it has been found impracticable to 
organize classes in it. Russian and Italian, though growing 
in popularity, may be left out of consideration. Whatever 
decision is made in the remaining cases will be applicable 
to these two modern languages if they fulfill the same end. 
If any foreign languages are to be taught in our secondary 
schools, they are Latin, German, French, and Spanish. 

Why should any foreign language be taught? There is 
a growing sentiment that no foreign language is of practical 
value. This is particularly true of German and French. The 
number of German-speaking people in the United States is 
diminishing so rapidly that except in sections the language 
is not widely heard spoken. Furthermore, nearly all Ger- 
man-speaking Americans can speak English sufficiently well 
for all ordinary purposes ; and, if the wide-spread movement 
of societies for the education of the foreigner continues, the 
non-English-speaking Germans will shortly be a negligible 
number. Frenchmen are even more scarce. A questionnaire 
elicited the fact that few German-taught or French-taught 
students ever find any use for those languages; and nearly 



COURSES OP STUDY 01 

all returned the reply that in the many years since they had 
left college, they had never even had an opportunity to con- 
verse in German or French! 

There is also the other angle. If it were granted that Ger- 
man and French are practical languages in America, can a 
boy acquire in school the ability to speak the language? 
After two or three years of high school German, how many 
boys could understand a German conversation, or could 
carry on conversation in German? The probability is that 
not one in ten can do it. The same is true of Spanish. 

The practical or usable value of a foreign language as 
taught in our secondary schools is, therefore, very little. The 
doctrine of formal discipline has been given such body 
blows that we refuse to defend the foreign languages on 
the ground of their having disciplinary value superior to 
other subjects. The culture, the humanitarianism, the 
broader outlook upon life gotten by two or three years of a 
foreign language is so doubtful, is so negligible in quantity 
or quality that we could not justify the taking up of so 
much of the pupil's time on that ground alone. Certainly 
it could not weigh in the balance against the narrowing, the 
deadening effect of hours upon hours spent upon looking up 
the meaning of words in the lexicon — looking up the mean- 
ing of the same word a half-dozen times if it occurs that 
often on a single page. 

The truth is that the foreign languages have been kept in 
the curriculum because the colleges and universities have 
required a foreign language for entrance and because the 
children take a fancy to the idea of getting a smattering of 
a language not known by everybody. These are unworthy 
reasons for having any subject in the secondary schools. A 
more justifiable reason for electing a foreign language is 
that it is usually taught by an excellent teacher — a teacher 



92 TH£ JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

who could teach and inspire boys and girls through the 
medium of any subject whatsoever. 

For the junior high school there is a strong justification 
for some Latin and possibly for some Old English on the 
ground that they have an excellent reflex action upon Eng- 
lish. Through them the pupil learns to understand the 
grammar of his own language, he gets a larger insight into 
the meaning of English words, and he strengthens and ex- 
tends his English vocabulary. One semester of each would 
probably be sufficient, especially if they were taught with 
this end in view. 

We reach the conclusion that in some parts of the United 
States a certain foreign language if mastered may have 
some practical value ; but that on the whole, foreign lan- 
guages should be dropped from the curriculum of secondary 
schools ; that the process of dropping languages must be 
done gradually so as to permit colleges and teachers to ad- 
just themselves to the change; and that a semester of Latin, 
of German, of French, or of Old English may be retained 
permanently for the value to English. Until foreign lan- 
guages shall disappear altogether from the secondary course, 
they should be made optional in the junior high school and 
should be taken by such pupils only as are compelled to have 
them to meet college requirements. 

6. Mathematics. In an earlier chapter it was seen that 
boys have strongly outcropping at adolescence the measur- 
ing sense which is connected with the observation faculty on 
the one hand and the reasoning faculty on the other. This 
is generally interpreted as the age for mathematics, and the 
boy is usually able to grasp the principles of algebra and 
geometry and apply them to objective problems. A careful 
trial of teaching pure mathematics to early adolescents re- 
veals the pupil's lack of ability to solve the problems that 



COURSES OF STUDY 93 

require an application of the principles of algebra and 
geometry. The chief difficulty here is that the pupil is un- 
able to unravel the mysterious wording of the problems so 
as to get his first statement. 

Girls often excel in algebra and geometry, sometimes far 
outstripping the boys of the same class. An investigation 
of a case of this kind revealed the fact, however, that the 
girls were somewhat older than the boys and were more than 
a year advanced in physical maturity. But girls are more 
variable in their mathematical proclivities. Far more girls 
are found wanting in ability to grasp algebra and geometry 
than boys. It is also true that girls do not like mathematics 
so well as boys do. 

In Pomona we have tried a progressive system of ex- 
tending algebra lower and lower in the grades. It was tried 
first in the A8 grade, then in the B8, then in the Ay, finally 
in the B7. The most interesting result was obtained in the 
B8 grade. A B8 class was started in algebra at the same 
time as a B9. There was no appreciable difference in the 
character and preparation of the pupils. If anything the 
ninth grade was more of a "picked" group than the eighth 
grade — picked in the sense that the poorer children had been 
eliminated. At the end of one semester the two classes 
stood together ; during the second semester, the most intri- 
cate problems being eliminated for the eighth graders, the 
two classes kept together, reaching quadratics at the same 
time. The number of intricate problems eliminated, how- 
ever, did not exceed twenty. Both classes finished the course 
without one student failing to reach a grade of 75 per cent. 

Our course is so arranged that pupils may begin algebra 
in the B7 grade if they have indicated strength in sixth 
grade arithmetic; otherwise they take arithmetic in the B7 
and begin algebra in the A7 grade. Pupils who do not wish 



94 the; junior high school 

to take algebra in the By, may take household accounts 
through the seventh grade, and bookkeeping through 
the eighth and ninth grades. If a pupil taking book- 
keeping has a change of heart at the end of the Ay or 
B8 semester, he may start algebra at the beginning of the B8 
or at the beginning of the A8 semester. Wherever he begins 
it early, he spends three semesters on the subject, algebra 
being one of the five subjects that he carries. There was 
some doubt in our minds whether the average child could 
commence algebra at the beginning of the junior high school 
and complete the subject in one and one-half years. In one 
of our schools all the children of the beginning seventh 
grade qualified on the basis of proficiency in arithmetic and 
have successfully carried algebra. In the other school forty 
out of sixty qualified for algebra and have successfully car- 
ried it. The other twenty made such slow progress in arith- 
metic that they were not considered ready for algebra at the 
beginning of the Ay grade. 

The conclusion is inevitable that, in a course allowing 
three semesters for algebra, the beginning of the junior high 
school is the time to commence the subject. The best two- 
thirds in arithmetic of the sixth grade will carry algebra 
without failure; the weak one-third will do better to take 
up algebra at the same time. Out of a class of thirty poorly- 
prepared seventh graders, probably twenty will do the 
algebra satisfactorily. The other ten should probably drop 
algebra for a semester, coming back to it at the beginning 
of the eighth grade. All in all, the proportion of failures 
among seventh graders taking algebra is no greater than 
among ninth grade high school pupils. 

We naturally expect to have geometry taken up by those 
A8 pupils who have finished algebra. In Pomona we have 
no data as yet on the success of this plan. In Los Angeles,, 



COURSES OF STUDY 95 

however, they have been successful in teaching concrete 
geometry (under the name of mensuration) to eighth grade 
pupils. Simple theorems are successfully demonstrated by 
the classes. In case our plan proves successful, the three 
years of the junior high school course will be divided into 
two equal periods — the first period for algebra, the second 
for plane geometry. 



CHAPTER SIX 

COURSES OF STUDY (Continued) 

; 1 . History aind politics. There are a number of con- 
siderations making the teaching of history and politics 
imperative in the junior high school. Among them are the 
incompleteness of the elementary school course, the grow- 
ing reasoning powers of adolescents, the desire to be con- 
sidered grown up, the budding desire to assume the burdens 
of society, the desire for a voice in government, the love of 
the heroic. Out of the many possible courses in this field, 
what shall be taught in the junior secondary period? 

The following are the units collated from the published 
courses of study of half a hundred cities and towns: (i) 
European backgrounds, (2) colonial period of American 
history, (3) national period, (4) community civics, (5) 
state history, (6) early ancient history, (7) late ancient his- 
tory, (8) medieval history, (9) early modern history, (10) 
1 8th, 19th, and 20th century history, (11) English history 
to 1700, (12) English history since 1700, (13) advanced 
American history to 1828, (14) advanced American his- 
tory since 1828, (15) advanced civics, (16) elementary 
economics, (17) sociology, (18) problems in American 
democracy, (19) problems in American democracy, con- 
tinued, (20) advanced economics, (21) economic and social 
problems, (22) constitutional history of England, (23) 
Europe 19th Century, (24) sectional history. If we follow 
the recommendations of the Committee of Eight, we will 
assign European backgrounds to the sixth grade, probably 
carrying the work to the American Revolution in that grade. 
It must be assumed that in the fifth grade the children have 
had a narrative and biographical account of American his- 

96 



COURSES OF STUDY (CONTINUED) 97 

tory through the entire range of white men's existence on 
this continent. If I and 2 have been done in the sixth grade, 

3 might occupy the first semester of the junior high school, 
followed by 4 in the second semester; 5 might occupy the 
third semester, while 6, 7, and 8 — covering the conventional 
first year high school history — would occupy the fourth, 
fifth, and sixth semesters of the intermediate high school, 
leaving Modern European History to the senior high school. 
In substance the above is a commonly used plan, and would 
meet the requirements of a junior high school that embraced 
the seventh, eighth, and ninth grades of one year each. 
The well-worked out Berkeley plan gives 2 and 3 in the sev- 
enth grade, 4 and 5 in the eighth grade, and 6, 7, and 8 in 
the ninth grade. 

The Pomona plan places 1 and 2 in the sixth grade. The 
other units taken in the six corresponding semesters of 
junior high school are as follows: unit 3 in first semester; 

4 and part of 6 in second semester ; the remainder of 6 and 
all of 7 in third; 8 in fourth; 9 in fifth ; 10 in sixth. In this 
way the conventional two high school years of world his- 
tory are given in the intermediate school. The senior high 
school- junior college is then left free to pursue advanced 
American history and economic, social, and political prob- 
lems. 

How much of this work should be required of all pupils ? 
If there were sufficient time, everyone should be required 
to take these six semesters of history. As it is, a minimum 
amount should be fixed — probably two units. If two units 
only are required, undoubtedly they should be 3 and 4, the 
last half of American history and all of community civics. 
If general history is not taken, the student will be greatly 
handicapped thereafter. However, the youth will have had 
European backgrounds which in a general way covers world 



98 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

history. He will also have an opportunity later to take Eng- 
lish history, English constitutional history, and Europe in 
the 19th and 20th centuries. These cover the ground pretty 
thoroughly. If, however, the school is not organized on the 
seven-year secondary plan, more pressure should be brought 
to bear upon the pupil to take world history in the junior 
high school. 

Will the pupil have opportunity to get the things he 
needs as summarized in the first paragraph of this topic if 
he does not take general history in the intermediate school ? 
The love of the heroic may be satisfied in heroic fiction and 
verse ; the desire for a voice in government, in student self- 
government and other student organizations. The other 
tendencies may be satisfied in debate, public speaking, and 
church activities. The ripening reason may find develop- 
ment in mathematics, in the sciences, and in English. The 
results obtainable are not so good as they would be in world 
history, nor would the outlook upon life be so broadened. 
Boys especially should be encouraged to take history, not 
so much because they are future voters but because all 
through history and civics can the boy express his masculine 
traits of character. In community civics one gets an under- 
standing of social benefits and obligations, and puts into 
practice the principles learned. 

2. The sciences. The investigating inquisitiveness of 
the adolescent coupled with the awakening senses of sight, 
hearing, etc., drives the boy inevitably toward science. If 
he does not get it in school, he finds it outside of school. 
Nothing can keep the normal adolescent boy from studying 
nature and nature's laws. The school has wisely taken over 
the sciences and is endeavoring to assist the young people to 
get a knowledge of nature by real scientific methods. Not 
the least benefit to the student is the scientific habit acquired. 



GOURSES OF STUDY (CONTINUED) 99 

The foundation of a vocation may also be laid by studying 
the underlying scientific principles. Thus science is the 
basis of cooking, mechanical arts, agriculture, mining, and 
many other occupations. 

The sciences commonly taught in the secondary schools 
are general science, agriculture, biology, chemistry, zoology, 
botany, physical geography, and physics. The difficult 
mathematics of chemistry and physics have forced these 
subjects into the eleventh and twelfth grades. Zoology and 
botany have likewise tended toward the maturer years of 
youth. By common consent physical geography, biology, 
and elementary agriculture have settled down in the ninth 
and tenth grades; while general science as a foundation 
science has until recently occupied the ninth grade and is 
now tending downward into the eighth and seventh grades. 

We have shown in a previous chapter the natural tendency 
of geography, that is, to merge gradually into history and 
disappear as a separate subject. After history has effec- 
tually swallowed the descriptive and geologic parts of 
geography, general science finishes the dissolution by ab- 
sorbing the physical element of geography. Only in rare 
cases now do we find schools offering courses in physical 
geography : general science has taken its place in the curri- 
culum. 

General science as a teachable subject has not been stand- 
ardized; it is still in a pliable, yes, plastic condition. And 
while it is still in this state, it will be easy to adapt it to what- 
ever grade to which it may be assigned. There are textbooks 
on the market purporting to be intended for fifth grade chil- 
dren. There would be a danger of such a course falling to the 
level (developmentally) of nature study. It might teach and 
inspire a love for nature but could scarcely develop the scien- 
tific method or embody a group of facts suitable for a foun- 



ioo the: junior high school, 

dation upon which to build a science. General science must 
go far beyond nature study, be a science in fact. 

If general science should occupy the last three semesters 
of the junior high school course, it would not need to differ 
from the subject as now taught in the first year of high 
school. It would, indeed, correspond precisely to that age, 
and such text-books as have been written for ninth grade 
could be used in the course. The plans outlined, the labora- 
tory manuals, and the laboratory equipment would be the 
same. 

On the other hand, if general science is to occupy the first 
three semesters of the junior high school, a considerable 
change in the course, text-book equipment, and manual would 
have to be made. The pupils could not understand the lan- 
guage of the text ; the materials in the laboratory would have 
to be less complex; and a simpler approach to the subject 
would have to be made. In the Pomona schools we are 
trying out this plan after having successfully taught it in the 
last three semesters of the junior high school. We are using 
a high school text-book, however. The success of the work 
is not assured as yet. 

Elementary agriculture as a text-book science and as a 
-science requiring no experimental farm is teachable in the 
intermediate school. It has been taught with success in the 
ninth grade of high schools, and, as was said in discussing 
general science, it would not need much change to adapt it 
to the last three semesters of the junior high school. If, 
however, general science should have to be taught in the 
last three semesters of the intermediate school, an unsolved 
problem would arise as to whether agriculture could be 
taught successfully, profitably in the first three semesters. 
It seems upon the face of the question that general science 
^should precede agriculture, but the reverse may become 



COURSES OF STUDY (CONTINUED) IOI 

necessary. Elementary agriculture in the seventh grade 
would be in danger of falling to the level of school garden- 
ing — a subject belonging to the elementary school. It can- 
not be too much insisted upon that elementary agriculture 
shall be a science in the true sense. It is decidedly a basic 
science upon which vocational agriculture may be built ; and 
the teachers should not forget that it is a science as well as 
an art. 

In case the junior high school course includes the tenth 
grade, biology would probably be offered in the last three 
semesters. Biology that includes the elements of zoology, 
botany and physiology would probably fill a demand in the 
lower secondary school. Many educators urge that a one- 
semester course in physiology should be required of all. In 
the preceding chapter we insisted strongly on the teaching 
of physiology and hygiene in connection with physical edu- 
cation. If pupils were required to elect between general 
science and biology, one semester of the two courses might 
be made common to both, and physiology be made the sub- 
stance of the semester's work. Where physiology and 
hygiene can be made a part of the course in physical educa- 
tion, biology and general science would then touch but 
lightly on those matters. 

3. Culture subjects. Under this heading we include 
those subjects that are studied for culture only — those that 
open new fields for intellectual and emotional enjoyment 
without any thought of their utilitarian value. It is an 
open question as to whether the public schools are justified 
in teaching on public funds subjects that contribute merely 
to the development of capacity for enjoyment. But the cul- 
ture subjects have so long been a part of our curricula that 
they cannot be dropped without disorganizing the school 
system. Under this head would come the foreign languages, 



102 TH£ JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

which have such a fascination for the young people of our 
country. The ability to utter a few phrases in French thrills 
the emotions of youths. It is very noticeable, however, that 
the hard grind necessary to the mastery of a foreign lan- 
guage does not greatly appeal to our young people. There 
are other culture subjects that produce the same tingle and 
yet do not involve such deadening drudgery. 

(a) Music. Most of our young people now arrive at 
the beginning of adolescence with an ability to read music of 
considerable difficulty. As music and other culture subjects 
have a tendency to raise the mind above the sordid and 
carnal things of life, we may safely assume that they will 
be taught in the adolescent period as a deterrent if for no 
other reason. Music is par excellence a culture subject. 
Classes in vocal music can be taught with inconsiderable 
expense, the child carrying his instrument around with him. 
The vocal music of the adolescent school should be free from 
grinding labor. The joy and inspiration in singing will be 
sufficient to offset such mental application as may be neces- 
sary. Choral singing lends itself to this period best, blend- 
ing and harmony being necessary to the making of adol- 
escent music. Occasionally one finds a soloist of the "back- 
fisch" age, but it is very exceptional. Duets and quartets 
are difficult to produce from among these young people. 
Boys and girls should hear good music at this age ; but should 
not be surfeited with classical compositions. One easy grand 
opera should be heard while the children are in junior high 
school. It will be epoch-making in its effect. 

This is the heyday of instrumental music. If possible, the 
school should own instruments of all kinds to be used by 
pupils with or without means. The youth cannot well afford 
to purchase an expensive instrument, which in all probability 
will be laid aside in a couple of years. While the frenzy lasts, 



COURSES OF STUDY (CONTINUED) IO3 

however, the opportunity should be afforded to learn to play. 
It will be hard to work instrumental music into a schedule 
of studies, because much of the teaching must be done by 
appointment with the instructor. Nevertheless, many schools 
teach it successfully, and thus help to build up a band and 
an orchestra of real merit. 

The fact that "music hath charm to soothe the savage 
breast" has wide application in the adolescent period. Many 
a boy has found solace in music when his growing body 
seemed aflame for more sensual sensations. Many another 
boy too anaemic for athletic honors has found himself lion- 
ized and happy as a musician in the school band. Besides, 
there is much healthy physical development in singing or 
playing for it strengthens the lungs, enlarges the chest, 
straightens the back, and induces a posture of body condu- 
cive to strength and symmetry. 

(b) Art. Much that has been said for music may be 
said with equal emphasis for art. Art as a culture study is 
justified in that it opens up a large field for high emotional 
enjoyment. Next to harmony of tones, beauty of color 
and form attracts the adolescent. In art girls find joy 
earlier than boys. In fact, art thrust upon boys of the 
adolescent period, may produce a revulsion, rather than an 
ecstacy, of feeling. A taste for art can frequently be culti- 
vated. Most girls take readily to art: it is an outcropping 
of budding womanhood, a symptom of adolescence. 

In the order of natural development, painting comes first, 
painting with striking colors and bold contrasts. Soon fol- 
low blending of shades and harmony of color. Drawing is 
more or less a drudgery at first, but the necessity for 
accuracy of perspective, for correct form, for light and shade 
soon dawns upon the pubescent girl. Paper and canvas give 
way to wood, leather work, weaving, metal work, clay- 



104 the: junior high school 

moulding, and jewelry. A large proportion of girls would 
take to this work if it were open for election, and no culture 
is healthier for the girl, compelling, as it does, out-door 
sketching, work-shop habits, physical exercise, and sense- 
education. It may be made of practical value, the girl 
carrying the work into womanhood and the home. Trimming 
of hats, designing of one's own dresses, draping of curtains, 
and decorating of the home — all are rendered easier and 
more successful by a course in art. 

At least three semesters of art and freehand drawing 
should be open to girls and boys in the junior high school. 

(c) Literature. One phase of this subject has been 
discussed in connection with English. It is mentioned here 
again as a culture subject, aside from its bearing on the 
student's learning to speak and write well in the vernacular. 
Whenever literature has failed, in the past, to give the boys 
and girls a love for reading good books, it has been very 
largely because they have been taught forms of literature 
far beyond their developmental stage. We have been ex- 
pecting children of fourteen and fifteen to like books whose 
cultural appeal is to adults. It is folly to try to get boys 
and girls interested in philosophical poetry or problem nov- 
els. Their intellectual and moral experience is too limited 
to comprehend the author's meaning. It is idle to attempt 
to interest early adolescents in Carlyle's Bssay on Burns, 
Emerson's and Macaulay's Essays, Macbeth, Hamlet, much 
of Milton's, Wordsworth's, Browning's, or Tennyson's 
poetry, to say nothing of Pope, Addison, Ruskin, Shelley, 
Keats, and Thackeray. 

And why try to interest pupils in, to them, such dry read- 
ing when we have dozens of writers and hundreds of books 
graduated to the adolescent mind. Here, too, it must be 
remembered, boys and girls begin to diverge in their likes 



COURSES OF STUDY (CONTINUED) IO5 

and interests. Girls are fond of Miss Alcott's books, George 
Eliot, Scott, Whittier, Longfellow, Hawthorne, J. G. Hol- 
land, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Paul Leicester Ford, 
Myrtle Reed, Owen Meredith. Boys like Stevenson, Scott, 
Cooper, Longfellow, Conan Doyle, Poe (prose), Dickens, 
Washington Irving, Aldrich. These authors should not be 
"studied," but merely read. Poetry will have to be read in 
class or with assigned lessons. As a matter of fact poetry 
should always be read aloud and in sufficient quantity to tell 
a story. Heroic poetry should predominate. 

Dr. Stanley Hall shows in an interesting diagram that 
girls reach their quantitative maximum of reading at thir- 
teen and boys a little later. This fact should lead us to 
conclude that this early adolescent period is our opportunity 
for introducing young people to good authors. How much 
shall we expect the boy or girl to read ? Hall's investigation 
shows that each twelve-year-old will read twelve books in a 
year, and the thirteen-year-old, fifteen books. Let us see 
what books a girl could read in the two years : Jo's Boys, 
Little Men, Little Women, Silas Marner, Romola, Ivanhoe, 
Kenihvorth, Snowbound, Evangeline, Miles Standish, Great 
Stone Face, Blithedale Romance, Scarlet Letter, Bitter 
Sweet, Katrina, Little Lord Fountleroy, Hon. Peter Stir- 
ling, Lavendar and Old Lace, A Spinner in the Sun, Lucile, 
and seven others. Boys could read Treasure Island, Ivan- 
hoe, Waverly, Rob Roy, Last of the Mohicans, The Path- 
finder, The Prairie, Miles Standish, Firm of Girdlestone, 
Hound of the Baskervilles, The Great Shadow, The Gold 
Bug, Oliver Twist, Martin Chuzzlewit, Tour of the Prairies, 
Astoria, Adventures of Captain Bonneville, Prudence Pal- 
frey, and nine others. One could be quite certain that the 
boy or girl would find at least one author whom he would 
want to complete. 



io6 the: junior high school 

This is the period of life when there should be some 
guidance in reading current literature. There are many 
magazines whose stories are very wholesome for adoles- 
cents ; there are others whose stories would be exceedingly 
harmful to those whose characters are not yet formed. The 
law ought to step in and prohibit certain story magazines 
being sold to children under eighteen, for the danger is cer- 
tainly as great as in the case of cigarettes or liquor. Love 
stories that are insinuatingly suggestive, adventure stories 
that arouse the desire to steal or commit semi-criminal 
pranks have the same demoralizing effect as liquor and 
tobacco. The school has done a great good in arousing pub- 
lic opinion against the latter: it should commence a legis- 
lative campaign against the former. 

(d) Dramatics. The study of dramatics for its cul- 
ture value is beginning to book large in the high school. 
Such a course is carried on along parallel lines. There is 
the theoretical side of the study, dealing with the history of 
the stage, the mechanics of drama writing, the elements of 
the drama, method of producing a play. On the theoretical 
side comes also the study of certain great type dramias — 
tragedy, melodrama, romance, comedy, and farce. Such a 
course in theory is called in the curriculum the drama. The 
other side might be regarded as the application of the prin- 
ciples of the drama to practice. It would involve the actual 
work of staging a play and would include making the 
scenery, stage construction and management, making-up the 
actors, and acting the play on the stage. Much of the class- 
room work would be the study of a play to get at the mean- 
ing of the words, then the interpretation of that meaning in 
speech and action. This practical side of the subject might 
be called dramatics. Both the drama and dramatics con- 
tribute to the broadening of the student's field of enjoyment. 



COURSES OF STUDY (CONTINUED) 107 

The beginning of this subject may well be undertaken in 
the junior high school, not perhaps as an organized course, 
but as a school activity. The pupils of this age may well be 
permitted to attend one good play a year. In all probability 
their parents will take them to half a dozen poor plays and 
to dozens of picture-shows. There will well up in the ado- 
lescent a desire to act on the stage, and mass action will be 
wholesome and good for such young folks. A warning 
should be uttered against choosing a "star" or "leading 
part" from among intermediate pupils : their heads are so 
easily "turned" that there is danger of ruining the boy or 
girl for any more prosaic work. 

(e) History and geography. From one point of view 
history and geography may be regarded as cultural sub- 
jects. One who learns in school to love the movement of 
events, descriptions of many lands, and all their attendant 
concomitants, will have a source of great enjoyment when 
he grows to adulthood. These joys will not consist entirely 
in reading history and geography, but in travel, in collecting 
local historical material, in constructing and reading maps, 
in visiting industrial plants, and in learning the methods of 
producing from the soil in places where he happens to 
sojourn. 

(f) Sciences. All busy men and women have their 
avocations which they love and enjoy. Many an office-man 
finds rest and pleasure in pursuing at home some scientific 
investigation. It may be chemical experiments, collecting 
flowers, stuffing birds, inventing mechanical devices, classi- 
fying geologic specimens, or testing building materials. It 
is to provide men and women with such enjoyable avoca- 
tions that many culture subjects are taught in school. In 
this sense the sciences may be regarded as culture subjects. 



I08 TH£ JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

(g) Manual training. What has been said of the 
sciences may be said of what is taught under the broad term 
of manual training. Dentists worn out with the tedious 
day's work find recreation at evening in wood- work; physi- 
cians, in metal working; lawyers, in electricity; teachers, in 
basketry, plastering, gas engine construction and repair. In 
this sense manual training is a culture subject, and, in pass- 
ing, it may be said that many more boys will use it as an 
avocation than as a vocation. 

4. Vocational subjects. For the purpose of this dis- 
cussion we define a vocational subject as one that is taught 
chiefly for its contribution to making a student fit for doing 
the work of an occupation, and is pursued by the student 
with the same aim. Algebra is not a vocational subject be- 
cause its main raison d'etre is not to prepare the youth for 
engineering (the only occupation in which algebra could 
be used). Stenography is a vocational subject because the 
main reason for teaching it is to prepare the pupil for the 
gainful occupation of a stenographer. 

The main vocational lines teachable in the junior high 
school are homemaking, dressmaking, agriculture, the com- 
mercial occupations, and the trades of the artisan. It is not 
claimed that any one of these occupational courses can be 
completed in the three years of intermediate school or at the 
tender age of early adolescence. A good beginning can be 
made, however — a beginning that will materially shorten the 
period of apprenticeship or that will lay a good foundation 
for a finishing course in the same line in the senior high 
school- junior college. 

(a) Homemaking. There have been many objections 
to the boys learning an occupation in the junior high school, 
the chief being that it forces the boy to choose at too early 
an age. This objection cannot be levied against homemaking 



COURSES OF STUDY (CONTINUED) IO9 

for girls. Such a large proportion of girls become home- 
makers that those who do not may be disregarded as being 
a negligible quantity. No parent could object to his daugh- 
ter's learning the household arts. It is therefore put first in 
the list of vocational subjects. (It is not necessary, I think, 
to point out that manual training does not stand in the same 
relation to boys that homemaking does to girls. Manual 
training, as such, is not an occupational course at all; and 
only a few boys follow a vocation that can be remotely con- 
nected up with it. We have pointed out in preceding pages 
that manual training has its chief value as a training of the 
senses, and is more closely related to art, music, and draw- 
ing than to any purely vocational subject.) 

The home-making branches best fitted for early adoles- 
cent girls are cooking and sewing. These subjects have a 
well standardized content and need not be discussed in full 
in this connection. The chief problem is where to place them 
in the three-year course. In high school sewing is usually 
taught in the ninth and cooking in the tenth grade. In some 
schools the two courses are taught through the two years 
but on alternate days. It may with assurance be stated, 
then, that these two subjects should be taught in the last 
two years of the junior high school, whether it has a three 
or a four year curriculum. 

As many school systems provide sewing one day per 
week in fifth and sixth grades, and some junior high schools 
continue sewing on the same scale through the first year 
of the intermediate curriculum, many girls want a change at 
the end of that time. There is, on the other hand, no good 
reason why cooking should not precede sewing as a five-day- 
a-week course. Therefore, in three-year junior high schools 
(seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth grades) ■, cooking may 
best be taught in the second year and sewing in the third, 



IIO THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

it being understood that the work be taken for ninety min- 
utes each day and that credit for one full year of high school 
work be allowed for each of the two subjects. 

(b) Dressmaking. Only the very beginnings of a 
course in dressmaking can be given in junior high school. 
It would be taught under the name of sewing. No differen- 
tiation need be made in sewing as a branch of the general 
vocational course of home-making from sewing as part of 
a dressmaking course. 

(c) Agriculture. We have discussed the subject of 
elementary agriculture as a science. While it should be 
taught as a science, and should be adapted somewhat to a 
class of students who do not have farming in mind as an 
occupation, its chief raison d'etre in a public school curri- 
culum is laying the foundation for vocational agriculture in 
the senior high school- junior college. A valuable product 
of the course is the vocational guidance result. That is, the 
course may open to the boy such an enchanting vista in soil 
cultivation that he may be led to select agriculture as his 
life-occupation. 

Elementary agriculture should make use of. a laboratory 
and propagation house. The pupils must see plants germi- 
nate and grow. This objective teaching is especially desir- 
able with pupils of the intermediate school age. The prepa- 
ration of the soil, the propagation of plants, the cultivation, 
irrigation, and enrichment of the ground — these are elements 
of vocational training par excellence. Computation of the 
costs and profits of farming is also a valuable aid to occu- 
pational training as well as to vocational guidance. 

(d) Commercial vocations include a large number of 
occupations, only a few of which can be taught directly in 
the junior high school. The most successful beginnings can 
be made in preparation for the vocations of stenographer, 



COURSES OF STUDY (CONTINUED) III 

typist, bookkeeper, clerk, and merchant. The best voca- 
tional results can be obtained where the pupil puts in part 
of the day in the practical application to business of the 
principles and facts learned in the school-room. But, the 
courses are usually planned with the idea of the work being 
continued by the student in the senior high school. In 
many cases, however, a finishing commercial course will 
have to be planned to fill the needs of young people who 
have to go to work at fifteen or sixteen years of age. 

In the regular curriculum provision may be made for the 
pupil's taking household accounts in the first year, elemen- 
tary bookkeeping in the second year, and business accounts 
in the third year, A more conventional course would give 
commercial arithmetic in the first year and bookkeeping in 
the second and third years. Of course the courses in com- 
mercial work would be elective. 

Typing is a very attractive subject to young people. It 
may be advisable for all the pupils to take lessons on the 
typewriter until they can all write with ease and rapidity. 
This sort of work can be done in odd hours and before and 
after school. But as a vocational course, it must be pursued 
by the pupil with greater avidity and with more serious pur- 
pose. Accuracy and speed must be attained; great skill in 
variety of work must be acquired ; and the mechanism of the 
machine must be thoroughly understood. These results can- 
not be secured in less than three semesters' work of at least 
sixty minutes per day. Ordinarily, the first three semesters 
of the junior high school course would be the time for 
typing. 

Shorthand appeals to the adolescent instinct for a secret 
code or language. There is great practical utility in the sub- 
ject. There is a possibility of doing all our writing with 
pencil in the shorthand code : it would save time and paper. 



1 12 TH£ JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

As a vocational subject it is of great importance. Commer- 
cial accuracy, speed, and readability cannot be acquired in 
less than three semesters of one hundred and twenty minutes 
per day. If the pupil is going to work at the end of his 
junior high school course, he should take his stenography 
during the last three semesters that he is in school. If the 
pupil is going to senior high school, his intensive study of 
shorthand had best be delayed until the last year of his 
school course. 

The principles of clerical work may be learned in connec- 
tion with bookkeeping, typing, and stenography ; pupils may 
get practice in clerical work through working in the prin- 
cipal's office, and in connection with student body finance 
and school records. Business principles and practice may be 
gotten in the same manner, and in the management of stu- 
dent affairs, especially of a co-operative book and supplies 
store, or of a cafeteria. Work in stores or in the management 
of a paper route gives some practice in business and clerical 
work, and is worthy of encouragement if it does not inter- 
fere with regular school work. 

(e) Artisan's trades may be begun in the junior high 
school in a small way, especially shoemaking, cobbling, plas- 
tering, paper-hanging, building, carpentry, cabinet-making, 
glove-making, corset-making, concrete-mixing, mat-weav- 
ing, basketry, pottery, book-binding, printing, tinning, ma- 
chine-repairing, blaiksmithy, plumbing, electric-wiring, 
sign-painting, upholstering, barbering, "practical-nursing, 
laundering, housekeeping, and manicuring. The beginnings 
of these vocational courses can be gotten in connection with 
the regular courses described in this and the preceding chap- 
ter. The whole physical, nervous, and mental being of the 
adolescent cries out for these things. Without them the 
boy or girl becomes stunted and unnatural; with them, 



COURSES OF STUDY (CONTINUED) II3 

growth is normal, school life becomes real life. These voca- 
tional activities are a tonic for a constitution fearfully 
shaken by the ferment of adolescence going" on within. 

(f) Practical arts. Finally, music, art, dramatics, pub- 
lic speaking, English composition — though taught as cul- 
ture subjects — become vocational subjects for those students 
who plan to become musicians, artists, actors, public speak- 
ers or writers. 



CHAPTER SEVEN 

PRINCIPAL AND TEACHERS 

1. Manning the junior high school. One of the first 
problems confronting the superintendent who has secured 
his board's adoption of the six-three-four plan is that of 
providing a faculty and manager for his junior high school. 
If he plans to place at once the seventh, eighth, ninth, and 
tenth grades in the new school, he must secure men and 
women of unusual tact, interest, and ability. Unless he can 
use all his former high school faculty in his "senior high 
school-junior college," he may need to shift several high 
school teachers to the junior high schools. This may be 
difficult. Such teachers regard it as a demotion even if 
they had formerly taught only the lower classmen. How- 
ever, out of a high school faculty of fifty, there, will be a 
normal resignation of five or six per year. These vacancies 
may be left unfilled until the enrollment in the "senior high 
school- junior college" justifies an increase in its faculty 
up to fifty. 

The expense of carrying on a senior high school of two 
years with forty-five instructors, when the four year high 
school had only fifty will probably operate to convince the 
superintendent that it were better to reduce the number of 
years in the senior high school gradually. A plan similar to 
the following might be arranged : 





Grades Jr. H. S. 


T'ch'rs. 


Grades Sr. H. S. 


T'ch'rs. 


1st Half Year of the 


7th and 8th 


20 


9th, 10th, 11th, 


12th 50 


Experiment 










2nd Half Year 


7, 8, and B9 


24 


A9, 10, 11, 12 


48 


3rd Half Year 


7, 8, 9 


28 


10, 11, 12 


44 


4th Half Year 


7, 8, 9, BIO 


32 


A10, 11 12 


42 


5th Half Year 


7, 8, 9, 10 

or, better 


35 
still 


11, 12 


38 


1st Half Year 


7, 8 


20 


9, 10, 11, 12 


50 


2nd Half Year 


7, 8, B9 


24 


A9, 10, 11, 12, 


B13 48 


3rd Half Year 


7, 8, 9 


28 


10, 11, 12, 13 


46 


4th Half Year 


7, 8, 9, BIO 


32 


A10, 11, 12, 13. 


B14 44 


5th Half Year 


7, 8, 9, 10 

114 


35 


11, 12, 13, 14 


42: 



PRINCIPAL AND TEACHERS 115 

In case, however, that grades 7, 8, 9, and 10 are com- 
pressed into a three-year course, the junior high schools 
will not need so many teachers. On the other hand, the 
greater number of pupils that will stay in school may require 
a still larger faculty. 

The senior high school being taken care of by the natural 
resignation of teachers, the increase in the faculty of the 
junior high school will be taken care of by adding new 
teachers drawn from the universities and teachers' colleges. 
The nucleus of this teaching force will be the grade teachers 
that are taken over when the seventh and eighth grades are 
transferred to the junior high schools. Experience has 
shown that these women develop into the very best type of 
junior high school teachers. With further college education 
secured in summer schools and with a greater breadth of 
view brought about by the spirit of the new institution, these 
teachers become the very models for the new additions to 
the faculties. 

2. The principal. So much depends upon the principal 
of the junior high school — an institution so new that there 
are, no precedents by which to go — that a separate para- 
graph must be devoted to the subject. Unless an unusual 
woman can be found, the principal should be a man. On 
account of the war the faculty must for years to come be 
largely of women, and yet the boys of the adolescent age 
should come in personal, intimate touch with at least one 
man. ; Even the girls should feel the fatherly hand in the 
guidance of their young lives. The principal should be a 
man of maturity and of considerable teaching experience. 
There are two attitudes either of which the principal may 
assume toward his pupils — that of the firm but sympathetic 
father or that of the intimate but protecting elder brother. 
The one he chooses must depend upon his age, experience, 



Il6 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

and character. An unmarried principal; of thirty- three years 
or under would scarcely fail to make himself ludicrous in 
the role of father. The married man of over .thirty-three 
would scarcely make himself less ridiculous in the part of 
elder brother. But any other attitude must be cautiously 
avoided, especially that of boyishness, of the gallant, of the 
suspicious moral guide, of the indifferent employer, of the 
easy grandfather, or of the indulgent father or brother. An 
experienced man may mix among the boys, inspiring their 
respect for his vast accumulation of information, for his 
bravery and hardy manhood, much as the scoutmaster among 
the Boy Scouts. Valuable is the principal who can coach the 
boys in athletics taking active part and 'showing them how 
the thing is done. At the very least, he must have a real 
interest in boys' sports and must be active enough to get out 
with them to advise, encourage, discuss, and appreciate. 

The principal must be a good thinker and a good organ- 
izer. He must have ideas on education worked out with the 
aid of his reading and personal experiences. He must be- 
lieve in the plan he is called upon to put into practice. He 
must not regard his present position merely as a stepping 
stone to a high school principalship. He should be a leader 
in the perfecting of the junior high school as a functioning 
institution. He must inspire the confidence of his teachers 
and of the public. He is not merely an institution manager, 
a chief clerk, a detective, a police officer, an executioner, a 
maker of programs, an executive ; but he is the 'leader in 
school matters, the truest judge of adolescent nature, the 
one head through which all departments, all classes, all 
activities are correlated. He must have a vision or an ideal 
toward which his school is to be (led to tend ; he must be 



PRINCIPAL AND TEACHERS 1 17 

tactful in his relations to the elementary schools and to the 
senior high school. He must be close in the confidence of 
the superintendent. 

3. The teachers. What shall be said of the kind of 
teachers we want for our early adolescent children? For 
our boys, do we want all women ? For our girls, do we want 
all men? Can we get what we want or what the children 
ought to have ? There seems to be a feeling growing, to the 
effect that our schools are OYorfemininized, that we should 
have strong, manly men for our boys and even for our girls. 
"Leave it to a board of education composed of men," said 
a woman candidate for election as a board member, "and we 
shall soon have only women teachers. We want a few men 
teachers who will excite the right kind of admiration from 
both boys and girls." We seem to be getting just now a 
higher type of men in the profession of teaching. As teach- 
ers' salaries rise, the profession will attract more and more 
young men; as more and more men enter the profession, 
young men will come to regard it a man's job and will pre- 
pare for it. 

At present in high school the field seems to be divided 
by comjmon consent. Boys' physical culture, commercial 
branches, manual training, the sciences, seem to be men's 
subjects; English, domestic science and art, Latin, girls' 
physical culture, and art seem to be women's subjects; while 
history, mathematics, modern languages, and music seem to 
be neutral ground occupied jointly by both sexes. On the 
whole, however, even among the neutral subjects, civics, 
higher mathematics, Spanish, and band and orchestra music 
are in most cases taught by men, while European history, 
algebra, German, French, and vocal music seem to be in 
women's .province. 

If this seeming division is carried down into junior high 
school the proportion will be about three women to one man ; 



Il8 the: junior high school, 

if carried up into junior college, the proportion there will be 
the reverse. This would fulfill the desire and belief of those 
who believe that the educational system should start with 
all women and end with all men teachers. In kindergarten 
all women and no men ; in the elementary schools, . 90% 
women teachers, 10% men (manual, physical teachers, and 
principals) ; in the junior high , school, 70% women, 30% 
men; in the senior high school-junior college, 30% women, 
70% men; in the universities, colleges, and normal schools, 
10% women, 90% men; in the research foundations and 
experimental stations, practically no women, all men. 
Whether this is logical or not, it seems as if it might be a 
safe guide at least when the war is over. 

A question that the superintendent must consider is, shall 
I seek for junior high school, young or old teachers, fresh 
graduates or teachers ,of long experience? One superin- 
tendent has signified in an article contributed to a profes- 
sional magazine his attitude. He wants older and more ex- 
perienced teachers for the early adolescents than for senior 
high school. He believes that the first year of the secondary 
course is so important, such a delicate time for the pupil that 
it would be fatal to leave it to inexperienced teachers. Many 
will agree with this plan, and it will for the present easily 
be carried out by having all seventh year work taught by 
the grade teachers that are taken over from the elementary 
school. Such new teachers as are added to the corps might 
be assigned to eighth, ninth, and tenth grade classes. 

4. College-trained versus normal- trained teachers. 
In nearly all states high school teachers are selected from 
among college and university graduates, grade teachers from 
normal school graduates. The result has been that normal 
schools have devoted their efforts to teaching elementary 
school methods, management, and problems. The depart- 



PRINCIPAL AND TEACHERS 119 

ments of education in colleges and universities have con- 
centrated their attention on high school methods and prob- 
lems. The junior high school embraces two grades that 
were formerly in the jurisdiction of the normal school and 
one or two that were formerly in the province of university 
tutelage. Arguments are now offered pro and con as to 
which institution shall train the junior high school teachers. 
The university has assumed that it is its work because the 
junior high is a secondary school in which the high school 
branches are taught, and because it has ;the machinery for 
instructing ninth and tenth grade teachers which may now 
be extended to seventh and eighth grade teachers without 
additional effort or equipment, and because the teacher can 
secure in the university without changing schools all the 
advanced extensions of the cultural branches he will have 
to teach. It is argued that the normal schools have become 
purely professional institutions, and that a person planning 
to teach in junior high school would have to take his higher 
academic training in a college or university and then trans- 
fer to a normal school for his professional training. 

The normal schools, on the other hand, lay the emphasis 
on the kind of teacher to be produced. They say that the 
university training tends to make the teacher interested 
principally in the subject to be taught and not the child, 
while the normal school studies the child and concentrates 
upon teaching the child. They argue that they will not need 
to give anything but professional training, for the teacher- 
students will come to them with sufficient academic educa- 
tion secured in the junior colleges of the cities and large 
towns The normal school will then maintain a course for 
graduates of the twelfth grade who wish to teach in the 
elementary schools and a course for graduates of the four- 
teenth grade who wish to teach in junior high school. In 



120 TH£ JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

the latter courses the emphasis would be placed upon study 
of the adolescent child. 

The university asserts that the normal school has become 
an institution for women only and cites such cases as the 
San Francisco Normal School with only a dozen men in a 
school of a thousand women. Such a school could not hope 
to attract men in adequate numbers for the needs of the 
miany junior high schools. The university is already pre- 
dominantly a men's school and the proportion of men over 
women is increasing. ;A man wanting to become a teacher 
would be proud to attend university, glad to have the chance 
to mingle with other men preparing for other professions. 

The normal, school replies that the pendulum is beginning 
to swing back, that a reaction has already set in. Once the 
normal schools had a goodly number of men students, lost 
them through the university's assumption of the training of 
high school teachers, and is now beginning to get them back 
by establishing classes and equipment for the training of 
teachers of so-called special subjects — manual training, 
printing, business and clerical work, vocational courses lead- 
ing to the trades. The training of junior high school teach- 
ers will fall in line with this movement. 

The question has not been settled. Its solution will large- 
ly lie with the superintendents of our cities and towns and 
will depend upon the kind of teachers they want for their 
junior high schools. 

5. A teachers' college for junior high school teachers. 
Another attempt to solve the problem presented in section 4, 
is the establishment of a college designed especially for the 
training of teachers of both elementary and high schools. 
Such an institution is Colorado Teachers College at Greeley, 
which prepares its graduates to teach in both classes of 
schools. It is a professional school — a normal school, in 



PRINCIPAL AND TEACHERS 121 

fact — but maintains two distinct courses, one for the elemen- 
tary school teacher, the other for the high school teacher. 
Its success has been tremendous. Peabody College for 
Teachers is another such institution. In a state that already 
maintains several normal schools, one could be singled out 
to become a college for junior high school teachers. Or, 
the agricultural college could add the new courses 'necessary 
for training teachers, this especially in a state whose single 
large industry is farming. 

There seem to be two distinct movements connected with 
the university development — one toward centralizing all 
state-supported professional schools in !one university, the 
other toward grouping the schools in two or three centers. 
In a small compactly settled state, the former tendency seems 
to be the stronger ; but, in the larger states where there are 
two or three quite distinct centers of population, the latter 
tendency seems to prevail. Massachusetts would be an 
example of the first, where the tendency is to group the pro- 
fessional schools about Harvard ; Washington is an example 
of the latter where the two centers of population, Seattle 
and Spokane, separated by a high range of mountains and 
by many miles of space, tend to create two professional 
school centers. Seattle is the seat of the university, where 
most of the professional schools are located and where a 
school of forestry and a school for high school teachers are 
sure to become powerful. Spokane, on the other hand, has 
a right to be the center for agricultural education, for the 
training of elementary teachers, t and should expect to be- 
come the seat of an institution for training junior high 
school teachers. California and Texas are states that may 
be expected to exhibit the two-centers idea. In California 
San Francisco Bay is the seat of the powerful university and 
of two large normal schools. Los Angeles, with its million 



122 . THE) JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

people, can expect to group about its normal school other 
state colleges. Here should be located its teachers' college 
to supply the needs of the junior high schools of the state. 

Such a state teachers' college might offer courses that 
would be extensions of the courses offered in junior high 
school. In all probability, however, the local junior colleges 
will be ample to provide sufficient instruction along this line. 
A teacher who has four years of academic work beyond what 
he is to teach will have sufficient subject-matter knowledge. 
What he will then need is a wide knowledge of methods of 
teaching those subjects, a large professional interest, and 
practice in teaching under the careful advice and suggestion 
of a master teacher. The; college instructors should be men 
and women with wide experience in teaching and unusually 
versatile. They should be capable of meeting any emer- 
gency that might arise in an ordinary class-room ; they 
should inspire their pupil-teachers with the greatest desire 
to teach; they should put their students into possession of 
numberless plans and ideas connected with the teaching of 
the subjects to be taught; but above all they should lead 
those student-teachers to understand adolescent boys and 
girls, and how to treat the various problems likely to arise. 
The physiology and psychology of the adolescent should be 
thoroughly understood by teachers graduating from such 
an institution. 

Such a teachers' college should be so located that a study 
of boys and girls, practice teaching in junior high schools, 
and an intimate acquaintance with the chief vocations of 
the state may be possible to the student-teachers. A large 
city surrounded by farm lands would ,be ideal in a state 
like Iowa. A large city accessible to mines and factories 
would be ideal for Pennsylvania. It is deplorable that so 
many state schools have been distributed as political sop to 



PRINCIPAL AND TEACHERS 1 23 

keep alive communities that would otherwise languish and 
die. Such a location is decidedly bad for a normal school. 
We want for our children teachers who are alive and 
progressive, teachers who have seen the busy world, teach- 
ers who are urbane not rustic, teachers who know more than 
our children and who live in the twentieth century. For 
our own rural and village schools we want teachers who 
know farm activities ; for manufacturing cities we want 
teachers who can explain things to the children in the terms 
used in the industries ; for mining camp towns we want 
teachers who understand the hearts that beat under the 
rough exterior of miners. Finally, the vocational life of a 
community re-acts upon the schools, especially its secondary 
schools, and vocational or pre-vocational courses must book 
large in determining the tone of the junior high school. 

6. An organization of jianior high school teachers. 
Nothing w^ill contribute so much to the high character of 
the junior high school teaching body as an institute devoted 
to their interests. A convention of all such teachers within 
a large city or within a county embracing several communi- 
ties should be held three or four times a year, perhaps every 
month. At this institute well prepared programs should be 
provided in which wide discussion may be given to their 
problems. There are so many questions unsettled as yet that 
such a convention could scarcely fail to find a plethora of 
interesting and valuable subjects. Organization, purpose, 
courses of study, methods of, teaching, grades and promo- 
tion, textbooks, relationship to the lower and higher schools, 
student-government, student activities, records and files, 
finance, part-time pupils, supervised study, length of periods, 
length of school year, frequency of promotion, making the 
transition from the grades easy and pleasant — these and a 



124 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

hundred other subjects might well be discussed to the great 
profit of all teachers concerned. 

During the year and as often as possible, conferences 
should be held among the principals , of junior high schools, 
or among the teachers of a certain subject, or among teach- 
ers of the new pupils, or among teachers of special pupils. 
These smaller committees concentrating upon limited sub- 
jects of interest will be able to work out very idefinite plans. 
A committee of five or ten members, each member represent- 
ing a distinct community or section or school, will find itself 
suited to doing definite things, settling definite questions. In 
this way there will come to be a standard tending to uniform- 
ity among the schools. The distinct problems of each 
school may be relied upon to offer opportunity for sufficient 
originality and initiative. 

Teachers' organizations are subject to some dangers, 
temptations that, if yielded to, may discredit them before 
the world. One of these temptations is to use their strength 
for selfish purposes. It may be to raise salaries, secure 
shorter hours of work, exclude outsiders fromi positions, 
restrict a line of work to one sex, to unmarried persons, or 
to graduates of some one institution. Nothing injures the 
profession more than selfish aims of teachers' clubs. Some- 
times these clubs are secret in their meetings and in their 
operations. A suspected organization of graduates of a 
certain state university to secure all the best positions in the 
Philippine service resulted in a deterioration of the esprit 
de corps of the excellent body of Americans teaching in the 
Islands. Nothing so discourages a worker as the feeling 
that promotion will be determined not by merit but by mem- 
bership in some organization organized to promote the selfish 
interests of its members. 



PRINCIPAL AND TEACHERS 125 

Junior high school teachers should be represented in state 
and national educational associations ; and a promiment place 
in the programs of the annual meetings should be secured. 
This new institution must become national; it meets a uni- 
versal need, but cannot render its best service unless the 
widely scattered schools come together in a single purpose. 
7. Literature on the junior high school. The output 
of literature on the six-six plan is already considerable, but 
chiefly in the form of contributions to educational maga- 
zines. One has to subscribe ifor a large number of such 
publications in order to get such information as has been 
published. Some school book publishing house would do 
great service to the profession if all these articles could be 
collected and printed in book form, filling probably two or 
three volumes. Permission to reprint this material could, 
very likely, be easily obtained from the authors and pub- 
lishers. In this way every school could possess a source 
book on the junior high school idea and plan that would be 
of great value to teachers. 

But there is need for much more material on the subject. 
There is need for concise descriptions of the actual exper- 
iences of school superintendents in getting the plan adopted 
by the board and approved by the people. Such a mono- 
graph as Superintendent Bunker's Reorganization of Sec- 
ondary Education is of the very greatest value, and espe- 
cially the chapters that tell of his actual experiences in 
Berkeley in working out his curricula and in (making a go 
of the plan. A volume devoted to Superintendent Francis' 
experiences in Los Angeles, another to Superintendent 
Chadsey's experience in Detroit, and still another to Super- 
intendent Horn's work in Houston would prove of large 
value. Such an enterprise would be welcomed by thousands 
of teachers, and school administrators. Books of this' kind 



126 the: junior high school, 

should be minute and personal, describing actual conditions 
that prevailed, and giving the success and difficulties in the 
inauguration of the scheme step by step. 

Then we need books or exhaustive articles written by 
principals of junior high schools the country over on the 
detailed work of their offices, of the establishment and build- 
ing up of their .schools, of the kind of teachers they find best 
suited to the teaching of adolescents, of the attitude of the 
pupils themselves toward the school and toward the new 
plan, of the reaction on the community. We need pages and 
pages of statistics that are unflinchingly accurate and that 
really tell us something about the number of young people 
saved to the higher schools, the reduction of retardation, the 
raising or lowering of grades, the effect of the various new 
studies upon the pupils, the logical place of certain studies 
in the curricula, the length of the school day, the success of 
supervised study, the hundred other questions that are upper- 
most in our minds. We want these statistics in detail first; 
then we want the superintendent and principals to draw in- 
ferences from those statistics. We want to know their inter- 
pretation of why the figures are so and so. We want the 
local coloring, even the personal equation which is always 
present in every group of statistics, and is of immeasurable 
value. We are not so much interested in proving our point 
in all this, as in ascertaining the truth. Lincoln's attitude 
should be ours. We are not concerned so much as to 
whether God is on our side as we are to know whether in 
this matter we are on God's side. 

Finally, we want to hear from the teachers on the many 
questions that they alone can answer. What do they think 
about the textbooks ? What are their experiences in adapt- 
ing the high school subjects to early adolescents? What is 
the re-action upon them of the longer school day, of the 



PRINCIPAL AND TEACHERS \2J 

all-year school term? What difficulties do they encounter 
in getting at various pupils? With what classes do they 
like best to work? In their actual experiences do they find 
some children "born short?" What methods and plans do 
they use in teaching this subject or that? — in teaching chil- 
dren how to study? — in directing religious education? — in 
helping adolescents to acquire proper moral standards? 
What is the effect of teaching in junior high school upon 
men and women? Does it keep them sweet and human or 
tend to make them other-worldly? What is its effect upon 
the marriageability of women ?— men ? Is this last question 
of any value to the race ? — to society ? — to the success of the 
junior high school plan? — to the pupils that come under the 
influence of such teachers? 

It may be seen that we are only at the beginning of a 
period of flood — a deluge of books, pamphlets and maga- 
zine articles dealing with the problems of the junior high 
school. It will be well for the cause if the writers of these 
publications have originality and some literary ability. It 
is so much easier to get a pamphlet read if it be made easy 
reading. Nevertheless, a lack of literary grace should not 
deter any teacher from setting her experiences and best 
thoughts down in writing. Not all of the half-million teach- 
ers in America will read these writings. No one has time 
to read all the educational publications. Nevertheless there 
is a growing tendency for teachers to read professional 
books and magazines more widely. Some school superin- 
tendents require a certain amount of educational reading 
each year, say one book on general professional subjects, one 
book on the special field in which the teacher is working, and 
twenty-five magazine articles or pamphlets dealing with 
child-study or methods of teaching. Such a requirement is 



128 the: junior high school 

not burdensome, and in many cases is far below what the 
teacher voluntarily does. 

Just one more word along this line — that may be relevant 
or irrelevant. Public school administrators — the men that 
are actually doing things — are letting college professors get 
ahead of them in the matter of writing books. It is high 
time we were hearing from the men and women in the 
field! Of course we are grateful to the college professors 
for publishing their theories and their investigations. We 
would not have them stop. They should even do more pub- 
lishing. But so also should superintendents, principals and 
teachers. What a travesty on life to find in Who's Who the 
name of a mediocre professor in a small western university, 
and not the mention of the name of a certain school superin- 
tendent of a city of half a million people — a man who has 
effected a revolution in education ! Again, casually looking 
over a list of the hundred contributors to a certain one of 
the five volumes of the best encyclopedia of education 
printed in America, we find not a single public school super- 
intendent or principal! Imagine an encyclopedia of medi- 
cine written by a hundred men with not one of them 
a practising physician or surgeon ! 

8. Heads; of departments. The matter of creating 
heads of departments in high schools has not met with uni- 
versal approval. In large schools where a department might 
have eight or ten teachers, the advantages of having a head 
teacher are obvious. There are also some arguments against 
the plan — it removes the principal too far from the teacher ; 
it converts the principal into a mere business manager; it 
departmentalizes rather than humanizes the teaching; it 
robs the teacher of his individual responsibility in matters of 
selecting textbooks and planning his work. In high schools 
with fewer than thirty teachers in all, the plan has even less 



PRINCIPAL AND TEACHERS I29 

to commend it. If a head has only one or two assistants, 
there is little excuse for his existence. In such a school the 
principal may well attend to the actual supervising of teach- 
ing. A moderate-salaried clerk will relieve him of the cleri- 
cal work of his office. In some high schools of fewer than 
thirty teachers, there are often heads of departments with 
no assistant teachers. In these smaller schools the practice 
of having heads often becomes a mere excuse for paying 
one teacher more than another, or of rewarding a merito- 
rious teacher by giving him a high-sounding title. If this is 
all there is to it, the end may be accomplished in a more 
creditable way. 

Shall there, then, be heads of departments in the junior 
high school? If such a school had two thousand pupils and 
a hundred teachers, there might be some reason for it. But 
even then the danger of making the instructors teachers of 
subjects rather than of children would be a strong argument 
against it. As we are committed to the advocacy of the 
small junior high school with a faculty not to exceed thirty 
or forty teachers, we cannot regard the practice of creating 
head teachers in such schools as anything but pernicious, 
with no good effects and many bad ones. 

It has been suggested by an able thinker and a capable 
administrator that the head of a department in the senior 
high school extend his authority over the teachers of those 
subjects in the junior school. With great deference 
to the opinions of this administrator, we cannot concur in 
this advice. The junior high school must be independent, 
not dominated by the school above it. Moreover the tend- 
ency in the senior high school is toward strict depart- 
mentalization, toward making the subject-matter the im- 
portant thing. Any policy that would tend to give the lower 
school such a tendency would be harmful. Finally, the 



130 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

teacher in (the lower school will teach in two or more fields. 
A teacher would probably teach several classes of English 
and several of history. If subject to a head in the higher 
school, he would have a divided allegiance that would not be 
for the happiest results. Such a plan would defeat the policy 
of closely correlating the subjects in the junior high school. 



CHAPTER EIGHT 

TEACHING IN JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

1 . Aims and purposes. In a most instructive book on 
methods of teaching in high school, Professor Parker, of 
The University of Chicago, gives as the ultimate aims of 
teaching in secondary schools the endowing of students with 
social efficiency, good will, and capacity for innocent enjoy- 
ment. Social efficiency embraces economic, domestic, and 
civic efficiency. Putting it in another way, the aims of sec- 
ondary education are efficiency, morality, and culture. 

As the proximate or immediate aims of teaching in the 
junior high school, we shall give the following: (a) The 
acquiskion of habits of industry; (b) the development of 
sense perception; (c) acquisition of motor skill; (d) health 
and physical development; (e) acquisition of valuable in- 
formation; (f) development of the faculties of reasoning, 
retentiveness, alertness, and quickness; (g) acquisition of 
skill in expression; (h) the development of a liking for 
clean, wholesome pleasures; (i) and the endowment of boys 
and girls with a deep sense of the purposefulness of itheir 
lives. Some of these purposes of educating the young are 
best taught through certain subjects; others, through other 
subjects. Each teacher will ponder over this matter thor- 
oughly. If he finds ithat the subject which he is assigned 
to teach lacks in the qualities to accomplish the desired aims, 
or if he finds that his subject is anti-educational in its 
influence upon pupils, he should in all conscience refuse to 
teach it. Surely no superintendent would compel a teacher 
to teach a subjeot contrary to the conscience of the teacher. 

Before proceeding to a further discussion of methods of 
teaching the various subjects so as to accomplish the results 

I3i 



132 TH£ JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

given above, some attention must be given to the mechanics 
of teaching, which will be treated under the headings of the 
Teacher, the Class-room, Textbooks, Libraries and Labora- 
tories. 

2. The teacher. The teacher must be introspective. 
Before beginning to teach he should get acquainted with 
himself, make an inventory of himself. He might address a 
questionnaire to himself, the questions running somewhat 
as follows: 

Am I going to teach for the money there is in it? 

Do I like adolescent boys and girls? 

Do I understand adolescents? (If so, make a brief in- 
ventory of the principal physical and mental characteristics 
of (a) the adolescent boy, (b) the adolescent girl.) Do 
I really love to teach children? — or is it the subject, thajt I 
love to teach? 

Do I simply know the subject-matter of the subject? — or 
•do I appreciate the large, vital purpose of that subject? 

Have I thought out what things touching the subject 
should be taught, and what omitted? 

\What should be the effect of my teaching of this subject 
<upon the pupils of my class ? 

If all teachers teach this subject as I teach it, what will 
be the effeot upon society and upon the human race? 

Are my physical, mental, and moral qualities such as 
will set a good example for my pupils? 

Am I familiar with a large enough number of methods of 
teaching that I can vary my teaching when I see that I am 
not getting right results? 

The teacher should be able to answer all of these questions 
satisfactorily. 

Then the teacher should have an eye to external appear- 
ances. He is to be before his class every day for several 



TEACHING IN JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 133 

months ; his appearance and actions will have a great effect 
upon his pupils. Dr. Hall cites a case of several brothers 
living in an interior town wanting to go 'to sea, one after 
the other. This desire was considered unaccountable until 
it was learned that a picture of a fine ship at sea had hung 
in the bedroom of these boys during their years of ado- 
lescence. How much more will a human, living teacher 
effect those who look at him day after day? 

The teacher in the junior high school might well take 
an inventory of his appearance by asking : Am I in as good 
health as I can be ? Am I vigorous, active, alert ? Do I keep 
my body well-groomed? Do I dress befittingly? Do my 
movements betray purposefulness ? How do I act when I 
am unconscious of what I am doing ? Do I have any odd or 
disgusting habits that bob up when I am off guard ? Am I 
stiff and formal, or, am I informal and familiar? Do I 
act as if I am lazy, careless, slovenly, hot-tempered, sarcas- 
tic, conceited, humble, over-bearing? Do I act as if I would 
countenance cheating, flirting, inattention, slothfulness, 
familiarity? Am I noisy and blustering? Is my voice loud, 
harsh, whining, or lacking in strength? Do I hear and see 
perfectly? Do I show weariness readily? Do I display 
anger and irritability quickly? Does my lip curl in scorn 
without due provocation? Do my appearance and actions 
indicate that I have been beaten in the race of life ? — or that 
I regard teaching as the most desirable of careers? 

While the class will size up the teacher, the teacher must 
not neglect to size up his class, to know his pupils. Some 
teachers seem never to know but a few of their pupils. Even 
after several months' teaching them, they do not recognize 
the pupils outside of the class. It is highly desirable that 
a teacher should know each pupil, know the pupil's other 
activities, home influences, and standing with his associates. 



134 TH £ JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

For purposes of this kind, a teacher could well afford to 
keep a private card system on which to note his impressions 
of the various pupils. In this way the teacher will come to 
focus his attention upon the children more than upon the 
subject he is teaching. By noting the impressions, gradually 
the card will be filled out with valuable data. Teachers may 
then consult among themselves about the pupil, and com- 
pare each other's experiences. A principal could readily 
check up the teacher's attitude toward teaching by looking 
over the notes on the cards. Warning, however, must be 
offered against becoming too minute in analyzing the pupils. 
There is danger that the teacher will come to regard them as 
so many pawns upon the chessboard, will come to regard 
them as something apart from himself, detached, inhuman. 
The teacher must not become merely an experimenting 
psychologist; he must be warm in his sympathetic relation 
to his pupils. 

The teacher must prepare lesson-plans. No matter how 
well a teacher may know his subject, he cannot afford to go 
before his class without knowing just what he wants to bring 
out in teaching the lesson before him. Each lesson must be 
a unit, must aim to accomplish some definite object. The 
lessons day by day must proceed toward somie realizable 
goal; and both pupils and teachers must feel that they are 
making progress. In order that the pupils may realize that 
each day's work is a step toward the accomplishment of the 
whole task, the teacher must have the whole course mapped 
out. This course-mapping should be done before the term 
begins so that no time will be lost. If the teacher has never 
before taught the course, he should make a general plan at 
the beginning of the term, a more definite plan at the be- 
ginning of each week, and an exact outline each day. If 
this arrangement is carried out, it will not take more than 



TEACHING IN JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 135 

fifteen or twenty minutes each day for the teacher to lay 
out the lesson. He will then have an abundance of time 
to assemble all the tools necessary for the successful conduct 
of the recitation. Without such systematic preparation, the 
teacher's work is apt to be unsatisfactory. 

3. The class-room. The following matters connected 
with the class-room need careful attention: Size, ventila- 
tion, heating, light, seating, conveniences, inlet and exit, 
acoustics. 

A small room where the pupils are cramped for space is 
an abomination; a large room with great distances and un- 
used spaces is barn-like. Assuming the number in the class 
to be thirty, a room devoted to class recitation should have 
from 9,000 to 12,000 cubic feet of space. An extremely 
high ceiling is not desirable; fifteen feet is high enough. 
Such a room would have from 600 to 800 square feet of 
floor space. This means a room approximately 24x25 or 
25x32. These dimensions may be regarded as the mini- 
mum and maximum. A shop-room for manual training of 
this size would accommodate about sixteen pupils at benches. 
A gymnasium for forty pupils -should have floor space of at 
least 2,160 square feet. A cooking room for twenty girls 
should contain at least 800 square feet of floor. A sewing 
room should be the size of a manual training shop. A class- 
room suited for laboratory demonstration or experiment 
should contain approximately 200 square feet of floor space 
more than the specification for classes. 

Ventilation may be by forced circulation of air, driven by 
fans through air shafts. In such a case the in- take should 
be located where the air from outdoors may be secured in 
purky; should then be passed through a spray wash; 
heated ; and driven by fans to the various rooms in sufficient 
volume completely to change the air of a room every fifteen 



136 the: junior high school 

minutes. The air currents should be tested and measured 
frequently so as to be sure that the ventilation is perfect. 
The bad air is forced by the pressure of in-coming air to 
pass out through a shaft rising to the top of the building. 
To facilitate this rise, the bad-air shaft may run up through 
a larger shaft in whose outer chamber passes the hot smoke 
or fumes from the furnace. 

The heating of a room may most properly be done by the 
system described in the preceding paragraph. The washed 
air is heated by passing over a furnace-heated surface, or 
in a chamber-oven. The heating of air has a tendency to 
dry it ; but the air is saturated with moisture when it passes 
through the spray wash. There are many other heating de- 
vices — steam, hot-water, gas-radiators, and electric radia- 
tors. They are said to be very satisfactory. 

The lighting of a room is from windows, from sky-lights, 
from electric lamps, or from concealed lights. While the 
last is best for the eyes, it is probably impracticable for 
school lighting. Sky-lights should be used as the last resort. 
The lighting from windows must be carefully controlled. 
The windows should be placed all on one side of the room 
and at the pupils' left. It is better if no window is farther 
forward than the front pupils' desks. Cross-lights are to be 
absolutely prevented, also lights that the children have to 
face. Glaring lights are bad not only for the eyes of chil- 
dren but also for the health of all white people. Dark green, 
brown, or yellow shades are best, depending somewhat upon 
the amount of light needed. 

The seating is of considerable importance. If stationary 
desks are used, they should be adjustable so that each pupil 
may have his desk and seat at the proper height for him. 
The seats should be arranged in rows the long-way of the 
room. There should be considerable distance — at least seven 



TEACHING IN JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 137 

feet — between the front desks and the front wall of the 
room. Better still, however, are the movable desks, that 
may be grouped in any way to serve the purpose of the reci- 
tation. They may be grouped close about the teacher's desk, 
or turned so as to give opportunity to see a demonstration 
at any part of the blackboard. They may even be removed 
from the room, giving space for physical culture, play, 
laboratory exercises, or other work. 

The acoustic properties of a class-room must be carefully 
adjusted. Nothing is so conducive to disorder, misunder- 
standing, and downright distress as poor acoustics. It should 
be that every child in the class-room may hear every word 
of the other pupils and of the teacher without the least 
straining. Of course, nothing can take the place of alert 
attention and interest. But a pupil cannot be expected to 
give close attention when he cannot hear well what is said. 
If the acoustics are now poor in the class-room, padding 
the walls or stretching wires from front to back of room 
will help matters. The teacher will do well to study his 
class-room, test the acoustics, and, if anything wrong is 
found, study the principles of the subject and apply the 
remedies. 

Every recitation room, gymnasium, and study-room 
should be provided with conveniences suitable to the sub- 
jects taught. Shelves for books, cases for supplies, black- 
boards, globes, electric lights, wall-maps, suitable floors, 
closets, dictionary racks, teacher's desk, filing cases for 
papers, cards. If the room is not already provided with these 
and other necessary conveniences, the teacher should see to 
it that they are secured or make them himself. The teacher 
as well as the school will be judged by the business-like 
arrangement of the class-room. The very appearance of the 



138 TH£ junior high school 

room will be an important factor in the pupil's attitude 
toward the teacher and his own work. 

Finally, a word should be said about the entrance-way into 
the room and the means of egress from the room. lEach 
class-room should have two doors for convenience as well 
as for safety. Pupils should enter by one door and leave 
the room by the other. That door is best, however, that 
swings both in and out. The doors should have automatic, 
noiseless closing devices. The doors should be kept locked 
when the teacher is out of the room; but a slit in the door 
for depositing papers, like a letter box, should be provided. 
The glass in doors should not be so transparent that per- 
sons walking in the halls will attract the attention of the 
class in the room. 

It would be well if every teacher could be provided with 
a private study or consultation room adjoining his class- 
room. Such an office would give him privacy, and would 
permit pupils to consult with a teacher without attracting 
attention or disturbing others. Such an office would per- 
mit the teacher to work in the building after recitation hours 
when the janitor is sweeping his class-room. 

4. High school textbooks not adapted to junior high 
school. Although a subject formerly pursued in the ninth 
grade may be more profitably placed in the seventh grade, 
it is true that the same textbook cannot to best advantage 
be used. As a matter of fact there is a maturing of mind 
and body that goes on with increase of age irrespective of 
the training they get in or out of school. This fact is all 
important when we come to consider the books through 
which we expect to teach the various subjects The last few 
years have seen an appreciation of this fact in the large out- 
put of books adapted to small children from adult originals. 
Take the fairly complete story of Robinson Crusoe now 



TEACHING IN JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 139 

written for boys of eight years of age. The original is hard 
reading for a mature mind ; it was impossible to the young- 
ster who would appreciate it most. Dozens of stories have 
recently been rendered into child language to the enrich- 
ment of our children's minds, to their enjoyment, and, inci- 
dentally, to the financial profit of the editor that did the 
rewriting. 

On the other hand there are many textbooks and classics 
used in high school that are too simple to exercise properly 
the mental powers of such mature boys and girls. We all 
know of several that have actually been finding their way 
down the grades toward the place where they belong. We 
have in mind such classics as Gulliver's Travels, Snow 
Bound, and Last of the Mohicans. These were formerly 
taught in the tenth grade, and then found their way into 
the ninth. They were gradually dropped from first one, 
then another high school curriculum, only to bob up in the 
eighth grade. They are now beginning to find a place in the 
first year of the intermediate school. We know of one 
beginner's Latin text, one English composition book, one 
textbooks in economics, and one in general science that were 
written for certain grades in the high school. They have 
all been dropped down a grade or two, or have been dis- 
carded as too immature. In history this is almost univer- 
sally true of high school textbooks on American history. 

Sometimes authors have over-shot the mark. This has 
been especially true of college professors who have written 
textbooks for high school. One could almost wish that 
there could be a law compelling college professors to teach 
their books to the classes for which the books are intended 
by their authors. Rare is that university teacher, who, 
never having taught ninth grade pupils, can yet write a 



140 the: junior high school 

textbook fitted to the comprehension of young people of 
that age. 

It is not sufficient that the language of textbooks now in 
use be simplified for the junior high schools. Simple lan- 
guage, simple style, yes — but these new books must be writ- 
ten from a different angle with an entirely different concep- 
tion. Again we must apply the standard of educating the 
boy and the girl, not diffusing knowledge through the world. 
Let us illustrate : 

We have before us a new textbook on ancient history — 
one of the least offensive, so we were told by the agent. In 
the few pages devoted to Greece, we find the names of 
ninety-one men and women. The time to be devoted to 
the subject of Greece is intended to be about thirty lessons. 
On an average three new persons appear each day in the 
study as it proceeds. Here are a few of the persons whose 
names are mentioned and whose deeds are described : Cimon, 
Alcibiades, Gylippus, Pelopidas, Epaminondes, Aratus, 
Zeuxis, Parrhasius, Thales, Zeno, and Hippocrates. There 
are many others whose names might profitably be omitted. 
Many school boys for the excitement of the game would try 
to retain every name and every deed. Their memories 
might be stored with more profitable information. These 
are husks that inflate, but do not develop, the mental powers 
of youth. 

Not only must the child to be trained occupy the center of 
the stage, but it is the early adolescent child who is begin- 
ning to develop an ego, who is beginning to feel that he has 
a big purpose in living, who is restless to try his strength 
on something worth while, whose emotions are sensitive to 
the appeal of heroic lives that have affected the progress of 
the world. The right kind of history and literature would 
book big in the life of the adolescent boy or girl. But facts 






TEACHING IN JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 141 

arc not the things wanted. They want episodes with strong 
coloring and of great consequence. There must be a hero 
to give reality to it all. 

Then there are textbooks on science, pure and applied. 
At this age it had better be reversed. There are a thousand 
things that are beginning to have a new interest to the 
pupils. Curiosity is strong. Let science reveal to them: the 
relationship of man to nature and to the race ; the relation- 
ship of nature to man and to the race. The so-called prac- 
tical things will appeal strongly to the early adolescent. In 
the abstract he cares little for the winds and wind currents. 
But wind currents that affect the crops, that affect the con- 
struction of buildings, that affect the location of sea-ports, 
irrigation dams, and sailing-vessel routes — such wind cur- 
rents will make a strong appeal to him. Let him proceed 
from the concrete to the abstract, from the effect to the 
cause. This is the point of view text writers must have in 
writing textbooks. 

Algebra and geometry must be justified to the adolescent 
boy or girl from another standpoint. In the first place these 
courses use symbolic language, and adolescents are fond of 
secret signs. In the second place, these branches of mathe- 
matics give promise of new, direct and easier ways of solv- 
ing problems. This side of the subject must be made much 
of. They are practical subjects for the mechanic, draughts- 
man, engineer, architect, artist, chemist, electrician. Text- 
books must not fail to appeal to the adolescent's growing 
demand for real life; and yet <hey can and should make an 
appeal to the game and puzzle interests of youth. 

5. Certain qualities to be developed in pupils. 

A. Acquisition of habits of industry. This purpose of 
teaching is realizable through every subject, but its success 
depends very much upon the teacher. A fine habit to acquire 



142 TH£ JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

is one of working with full steam ahead when working", and 
playing hard when playing. The teacher will do well to ob- 
serve the following points in teaching pupils to be indus- 
trious : The teacher must be a fine example of industrious- 
ness himself; there must be a regular, fixed time for the 
pupil's reciting and studying ; a definite assignment of a 
lesson must be made so that the pupil will waste no time in 
getting to work ; a limited time should be allowed the pupil 
for doing a task; the pupil should be taught how to study 
and work so as to save time; the pupil should be compelled 
to work when he does not feel like it, for the feeling of 
laziness will soon pass away and be forgotten, but habit of 
resisting one's lazy impulses will remain as an abiding bless- 
ing; pupils should be required to carry through a program 
once undertaken. If a pupil be permitted to follow his own 
whim, work when the spirit moves him, procrastinate, dissi- 
pate his energies, mope over his tasks, he will soon be 
beyond easy redemption. 

B. The development of sense perception is best secured 
through music, art, manual training, sewing, craft-work, 
typing, and mensuration. In these subjects great stress 
should be placed upon keenness, accuracy, and swiftness of 
feeling, hearing, seeing, measuring. The teacher will begin 
with crude material and proceed in all three of the above 
lines toward greater and greater proficiency. Daily exer- 
cises must be provided and practice constantly insisted upon. 
The teacher must have as an ideal a degree of perfection 
far beyond what has been attained up to the present time. 

C. Acquisition of motor skill is secured best through 
physical culture, manual training, printing, penmanship, 
shorthand, instrumental music, mechanical drawing, sewing, 
typing, and craft-work. The aim here is to secure accuracy, 
swiftness, delicacy, dexterity, power, and endurance. Here, 



TEACHING IN JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 143 

likewise, it may be said that the past records must be broken 
and the unbelievable attained. The rank and file must be 
raised beyond mediocrity, must. in fact press close upon the 
heels of the specially gifted. 

D. Health and development belong principally in the field 
of physical culture, athletics, physiology, domestic science, 
domestic art, sanitation, vocal music, folk-dancing, public 
speaking, theatricals, military training, dietetics. Corrective 
measures should he prominent in physical culture, as well as 
further development of the already healthy body. Athletics 
promote health, strength, and physical perfection, as well as 
physical courage and control. Domestic science works out 
a healthful diet and reveals the evils of a wrong diet. 
Domestic art gives the girls an ability to dress themselves 
becomingly without resorting to such evil practices as tight 
lacing and pinching of the feet with too small shoes. Vocal 
music develops the lungs and throat, gives correct breathing. 
Public speaking and theatricals promote correct posture and 
grace. 

E. Acquisition of information of a usable sort comes 
through a study of vocational, civic and cultural branches of 
learning. In the past culture was stressed ; now civic infor- 
mation is coming into its own. Vocational knowledge has. 
broadened from the professions to include practically every 
honorable occupation. The information of every subject 
should be worth while if it is to be continued in the curri- 
culum); but for each pupil there is a field of knowledge most 
worth while. The well-educated student, we say, should 
have a knowledge of the history of the world in general and 
of our own country in particular so that he will understand 
the present and profit by the experiences of those who have 
gone before. He should understand the institutions under 
which he lives and must work out his place in the universe. 



144 TH E JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

He must know the necessary facts and principles connected 
with his probable future vocation, and should know consid- 
erable of the contributory facts as well as related vocations. 
He should understand the general principles of the scientific 
and material world about him — physical, chemical, biologi- 
cal, mechanical. He ought to learn to appreciate the beauties 
of nature and art — music, art, literature, drama, and to be 
familiar with the great masterpieces. 

F. In discussing the development of the faculties of 
reasoning, retentiveness, alertness, and quickness of percep- 
tion, we realize that we are on dangerous ground. We 
shall, therefore, not enter into the controversy concerning 
formal discipline, but shall assume that the question has not 
yet been 'proven against the possibility of developing the 
faculties of the mind. For the reasoning power, then, there 
are no better subjects than algebra and geometry. We must 
not rely upon these two subjects entirely, but should include 
exposition and argument in composition, grammar, economic 
problems, debate, and problems in science and mechanics. 
For retentiveness, we may use all the subjects to advantage, 
but in particular the memorizing of poetic and prose selec- 
tions, the exact wording of geometric propositions, formu- 
lae in mathematics, meaning of words in language, and the 
converse — that is, the word for a certain meaning — spelling, 
mathematical tables, symbols in chemistry, laws and rules 
in all subjects. Drill in alertness should accomjpany all 
branches, but must especially be developed by the mathe- 
matics and language teachers. Quickness of perception is 
closely related to alertness, and is the opposite of sluggish- 
ness, dullness, sloth. Teachers must keep always in mind 
the development of this faculty by practice and drill, never 
by exhortation and nagging. 



TEACHING IN JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 145 

G. Skill in expression is especially within the field of 
English and its related subjects, debate, oratory, explana- 
tion of the solution of problems, economic and historical 
discussion. Oral and written composition deal constantly 
with this problem ; and, although the ability to think may be 
placed first in the aims of a composition course, certainly 
skill in expression is the other great aim. The importance 
of this acquisition cannot be too much insisted upon. The 
teacher must constantly keep it in mind. We do not mean 
that he should interrupt the pupil's talk to make corrections, 
for the teacher will use a more tactful device than that. The 
pupil must be taught to turn his own mind in upon his own 
language before he can acquire ability to express himself 
well. He may be awkward at first, but speaking effectively 
will soon become a habit and will not require close attention. 

H. The development in the pupils of a liking for clean 
wholesome pleasures is especially the duty of teachers in the 
junior high schools. It is the age for forming tastes. Hence 
culture subjects should book large at this time, providing 
that we do not aim too high and thus miss the mark. 
Through physical education may be developed the love for 
physical sports and athletic games. In manual training 
should be aroused a pleasure in making things with the 
hands. In English, a love for reading good literature; in 
art, for looking at paintings, statuary, architecture, scenery, 
landscape ; in music, for hearing music of the better class ; 
in foreign languages, for reading and conversing in an alien 
tongue; in history, for following the great, stirring deeds 
of the heroes of nations ; in science, for collecting specimens 
and making experiments. 

I. Pur pose fulness of life. The last aim of teaching to 
be discussed is one that affects deeply the lives of all boys 
and girls of the adolescent period. Why do I live? For 



I46 TH£ JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

my own pleasure or for a greater purpose? Are the two 
ideas antagonistic or complementary? What can I do now 
to accomplish these purposes? How shall I prepare for 
carrying out the great plan? What effect will my present 
daily life have upon it? What effect will industry, self- 
denial, good habits have upon it? What effect will over- 
indulgence, bad habits, and vice have upon it? Is it a fact 
that everything I do or think now has its effect which will 
appear later? If so, does it not behoove me to consider well 
what I do, not solely with the thought of its present effect 
but also of its future effect? Every thought and every deed 
should be purposeful. The pupil should decide what effect 
he wants to produce and then go about doing the things that 
will bring that result about. 

6. The method of the recitation period. We have 
used the expression "recitation period" because it is a term 
widely understood, and not because we believe that in any 
sense it should be a recitation to the teacher, of facts learned 
by the pupil in private study of an assigned lesson. On the 
contrary, we regard the period as a space of time allotted 
in the program to the concentrated study of some particular 
subject. The teacher is to teach through the medium of a 
certain subject, habits of industry, motor skill, health and 
development, usable information, reasoning, retentiveness, 
alertness, quickness of perception, skill in expression, a lik- 
ing for wholesome pleasures, or life purposes, or a combina- 
tion of several or all of these things. We shall draw no 
clearly defined line between the study part of the period and 
the so-called recitation part. In fact, the whole period must 
be regarded as a study period in which the pupil is making 
progress every minute toward the working out of some 
problem. 



TEACHING IN JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 147 

It may be accepted as a truism that a pupil will attack with 
greatest avidity, and will get most out of, that in which he 
has the largest interest. It follows that the first business 
of the teacher is to arouse the pupil's interest in the problem 
or subject. Attention both precedes and follows interest; 
but the first attention may in some cases be compelled atten- 
tion, although in many instances it is aroused attention. A 
globe on the teacher's desk, apparatus on a demonstration 
table, a few notes sung by the teacher, the explosion of a 
chemical gas — all serve to attract the attention and arouse 
the interest of the class. The period's problem is then pre- 
sented by the teacher or thought out by the pupils. There 
is the excitement of a game as the problem gradually unfolds 
itself to the pupil and he begins to see clearly what he has 
to do. One of the necessities of careful preparation by the 
teacher lies in the laying out of a definite problem for his 
pupils. The solving of this problem is the work of the "reci- 
tation period." There should be no more literal recitation 
than is absolutely necessary — just enough for the teacher to 
make sure that the pupils all do and understand the work. 

Viewed in this sense the whole period may be one of 
supervised study. Many of the pupils will do the work 
without much direct supervision. Others will need the close 
supervision of the teacher, who may need to watch the 
pupil's solution of the problem step by step. Ten or fifteen 
out of a group of twenty-five may need to have the teacher 
accompany them paragraph by paragraph through a history 
lesson, help them look up all the references, and see that they 
get the real point out of each reference. The wise teacher 
will avoid interfering with the pupil who works well by him- 
self. Such pupils may work in the library or elsewhere dur- 
ing part of the period, coming to the class-room for a sum- 
ming up of their gleanings. This kind of school-work may 



148 the: junior high school 

be regarded as self-propelled education and is highly desir- 
able. The object of the supervised study should be to pro- 
duce self-propelling students out of all the pupils. This 
method does not imply that certain students shall go faster 
than others ; it will, however, result in some students putting 
far less time upon certain subjects than other students will 
have to do. 

This method of teaching is more analogous to the labora- 
tory method than to the recitation. We are all familiar with 
the laboratory method as applied to the sciences and with its 
counterparts, the library method as applied to history, the 
shop method as applied to manual arts, and the gymnasium 
or playground method as applied to physical education 
courses. Supervised study would not interfere with these 
plans and methods : it w T ould apply many of the principles 
of the laboratory method to other subjects, such as English, 
mathematics, the languages, and the vocations. Teachers 
sometimes object to it as requiring more preparation and 
planning on their part. This seems to us to be an argument 
in its favor. 

The introduction of supervised study will not eliminate 
the review recitation altogether. It is highly desirable that 
the class be got together two or three days each week for a 
conversational review of the work covered. The question 
and answer method may prevail at these meetings, but the 
pupil should be encouraged to ask the teacher questions also. 
Such questions miay be jotted down and handed to the in- 
structor before the review recitation begins. While con- 
versational reviews are essential and experienced teachers 
are expert in the management of them, the principal should 
insist that they be not engaged in too frequently. 

Finally, a modified lecture recitation should be used occa- 
sionally in all subjects. It may be presumed that the teacher 



TEACHING IN JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 149 

has had wide experience and that it would be to the benefit 
of his pupils if he would tell his pupils of those experiences. 
This will be entertaining as well as instructive and will draw 
teacher and pupils close to each other. Possibly the teacher 
may have carried on careful investigations in college or out- 
side, the data from which would be of considerable value to 
his pupils. The best teacher will have done wide reading, 
the results of which should be retold to those who study 
under his tutelage. In many cases the teacher may secure 
outsiders to come in and talk to his classes along certain 
lines. Care must be exercised that the right persons are 
chosen and that the matter is presented in a clear and inter- 
esting way. This supplementary information drawn from 
the teacher's experiences or from outsiders is well worth 
while for the education of the young people. It correlates 
school with life, and serves to stimulate and inspire boys 
and girls at an age when they are in greatest need of stimu- 
lation and inspiration. 



6 



CHAPTER NINU 

ADMINISTRATION OF THE JUNIOR HIGH 
SCHOOL 

1. The faculty. We wish to discuss the subject of the 
administration of the junior high school not so much from 
the point of view of the city superintendent as of the prin- 
cipal of the school and those who aid him. We may in this 
chapter consider that we have a school of three hundred to 
six or seven hundred pupils and from fourteen to twenty- 
five teachers. With such a school and a faculty already 
appointed and assigned to his building, the principal has 
certain problems demanding solution. 

It is not conceivable that he undertake all the details of 
administration. He must delegate powers and duties to 
teachers, janitors, and pupils; and the most successful prin- 
cipal is he who can delegate most functions while he main- 
tains control and supervision over all. In delegating these 
functions he must use great wisdom in selecting the persons 
to do the work. They become his authorized agents ; if they 
fail, he is, and should be, held responsible. 

The largest working body — as agent of the principal — 
is the faculty. This does not need any formal organization. 
All the teachers of the school are per se members of the 
faculty. The faculty holds meetings only upon the call of 
the principal, either at regular intervals or when necessity 
arises. The principal acts as chairman of the faculty meet- 
ing. Where many questions are to be discussed, it is some- 
times advisable to have a recording secretary, perhaps the 
principal's stenographer. The principal delegates to the 
faculty as many matters as he deems wise. If he feels that 
the judgment of the faculty is good, is better than his own 

150 



ADMINISTRATION 1 51 

acting alone, he will do well to ask the teachers to pass upon 
many questions of importance. If the faculty lacks good 
judgment, is prejudiced, or is divided, it were better for the 
principal not to refer important matters to it. Through 
these meetings the principal communicates to the faculty his 
plans of organization, his ideas on educational policy, and 
instructions that come from the superintendent. It is best 
not to burden a faculty with too many questions for it must 
be borne in mind that each teacher has his own teaching 
work to do and plans to make. 

Some principals find it worth while to divide the faculty 
work among committees of the faculty. He appoints these 
committees and outlines the work desired. The author, 
when principal of a secondary school, appointed faculty com- 
mittees on codification of rules and customs of the school, 
on preparation of plans for student self-government, on cur- 
rent educational progress, on discipline, etc. These com- 
mittees made their reports and recommendations to the 
principal, who adopted them, rejected them, or referred 
them to the faculty as a whole. Valuable information is 
gathered in this way, and unity of action is secured. 

It is well to assign to the various teachers duty as regis- 
tration officers, or as class advisers. The principal will soon 
learn which of his teachers are adapted to this kind of work. 
A registration teacher needs to be exact, methodical, firm, 
a good judge of child nature, and active. A class adviser 
must be in sympathy with young life, must appreciate its 
pleasures and troubles, must be a good organizer, and must 
have a winning personality. Such teachers are even closer 
to the pupil than is the principal. For class advisers, the 
principal should pick those teachers who are closest to him, 
understand his ideals and policies, and are ardent advocates 
of them. 



152 the junior high school 

The principal will find it convenient and effective to assign 
to each teacher some collateral duty. It m(ay be as coach 
of boys' or girls' athletics, coach of debate, leader of orches- 
tras or of bands, cross-country chaperon, auditor of stu- 
dent-organization accounts, coach of the school plays, faculty 
member of the staff of the school newspaper, etc. Teachers 
should be chosen for their fitness for the work; but some- 
times teachers should be appointed to certain tasks in order 
to develop the teacher. One of the tasks laid upon the prin- 
cipal is that he make excellent teachers out of those assigned 
to his building. He must bear this in mind. 

2. Supervision. In a previous chapter the author 
attempted to make clear the undesirability of having heads 
of departments in the junior high school, especially as the 
ideal school is one requiring not more than twenty-five 
teachers. Mention was also made of the danger of having 
the senior high school heads supervise and control the work 
of the lower high school. It follows that in small communi- 
ties having not more than two or three such schools, the 
superintendent should supervise directly the departmental 
work of the junior high school or delegate part of such 
duties to principals. In cities having more than three such 
schools, there should be a supervisor of subjects or several 
supervisors of subjects. These supervisors are to attend to 
the matter to be taught, its kind, quality, and amount; the 
providing of the proper supplies, equipment, and acces- 
sories; the best methods of teaching the subjects; the mak- 
ing of the curricula ; the proper articulation with the courses 
of the grades below and above the junior high school. The 
supervisors are to work in harmony with the principals of 
the intermediate schools, are in fact advisory aides to the 
principals, and should stand to the principals and teachers 
in the same relation as heads of departments. The superin- 



ADMINISTRATION 1 53 

tendent when acting as supervisor has the same duties, but 
he is also the administrator of all the schools and occupies a 
dual headship. The supervisor does not take over the whole 
authority of the superintendent: he merely acts for the 
superintendent in the restricted field described above. 

There are other officers in the city who exercise wider 
authority than one school, but their functions are also limited 
to one or two particular fields each. The director of the 
bureau of vocational guidance within a restricted area of 
activity is a supervisor. The vocational adviser exacts re- 
ports from the teachers, plans vocational stimulation, brings 
in outside speakers, arranges trips to industrial institutions, 
and himlself teaches a class in vocational information and 
guidance. He makes himself useful to the principals of the 
various secondary institutions by making out the curricula 
for the pupils and by interviewing pupils who are desirous 
of leaving school, in order to hold them in school for their 
own good. 

Then there is the bureau of compulsory attendance that 
touches the life of each school, the pupils and the teachers. 
This, too, occupies a restricted field and performs such work 
as is delegated to it by the superintendent. Within this 
bureau are the chief of the bureau, examining physicians, 
nurses, attendance officers, parental-school teachers, home 
teachers, interpreters. In a small city this work may all be 
entrusted to one person. In any case it touches the junior 
high school frequently, as it is during the age covered by 
this school that the compulsory attendance law ceases to 
operate. Again, it may be noted that the various activities 
of this bureau are an aid to the principal of the junior high 
school, and should be so regarded by him. The members of 
this bureau should also endeavor to be of the greatest assist- 
ance to the principals. 



154 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

3. Organization of the schedule. In the making of a 
schedule nowadays it must be accepted as a necessity in many 
cases that pupils are not only to recite every lesson at school 
but also prepare every lesson at school. This is a feature 
of the junior high school and raises innumerable problems. 
Of course this does not mean that certain home reading of 
good literature and of magazines shall not be required. But 
the regular subjects occupy only the school day. This prob- 
lem is rendered more difficult as physical education, athletics, 
debating society work, chorus rehearsals, etc., are also to be 
done at school. The upshot of the whole matter is that the 
school day must be greatly lengthened to even longer hours 
than existed before the enthusiasm for short and shorter 
sessions broke out. Many progressive schools have taken 
the lead and are now holding from 8.30 in the morning to 5 
o'clock in the afternoon, with one hour for noon. Economy 
in space and teachers has even made it necessary to have 
some classes going on during the noon hour. 

Assuming an enrollment of 400 pupils, and classes averag- 
ing twenty-five pupils each, and each pupil carrying five 
major subjects, we have a school with 80 recitations per day. 
Such a school would probably have 16 teachers. One plan 
would provide for eight periods of sixty-three minutes each 
(the three minutes for passing, leaving sixty minutes in the 
clear). The morning session would begin at 8.30, and the 
periods end as follows: (1) at 9.33; (2) at 10.36; (3) at 
11.39; (4) at 12.42; (5) at 1.45; (6) at 2.48; (7) at 3.51; 
(8) at 4.54. Most of the students would eat lunch during 
the fourth period; many would try to reserve the seventh 
and eighth periods for athletics. A large number would 
prefer to have the first period for study only. To the eighty 
recitations mentioned above must be added eight study hall 
periods, making a total of eighty-eight to be divided among 



ADMINISTRATION 155 

sixteen teachers, an average of fewer than six recitations 
each. Now, if we assume that all sixteen teachers would 
teach during the second, third, fifth and sixth periods, we 
dispose of four times sixteen, or sixty-four, class recitations, 
four of which would be study hall supervision. In this way, 
only twenty- four recitations and study hall periods would be 
left to be disposed of during the first, fourth, seventh, and 
eighth periods. It may be readily seen that the schedule 
could easily be arranged so as to have the first, fourth, sev- 
enth, and eighth periods almost entirely for study, luncheon, 
recreation and physical or manual culture, respectively. 
Those who took their physical culture earlier in the day 
would be assigned regular recitations during the late after- 
noon periods. 

This program provides for long periods and no recesses 
as such. It does, however, assume that three minutes shall 
be allowed for going from class to class and that this amount 
of time is ample for providing an opportunity to visit the 
toilet, get a drink, carry a message, etc. A sixty-minute 
period permits of supervised study. Some schools use the 
first twenty-five or thirty minutes of the period for recitation 
and the remaining time for study under the general direc- 
tion of the teacher. If some of the pupils have learned to 
study economically and effectively before entering the junior 
high school, they may be segregated during the last part of 
the period, while the teacher devotes his time to teaching the 
others to study. 

4. Clerical work. There is an immense amount of 
clerical work connected with the administration of a junior 
high school. It is best to have a principal's clerk to do it, 
but this is not always practicable. Some of it must be done 
by the principal himself while much of it can be done by 
delegating it to teachers or to pupils. The ringing of bell- 



I56 THE) JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

signals, answering the telephone, running errands can be 
done by pupils where there is no other agency. Many 
pupils like to do this kind of work and become very efficient. 
It is not just to impose upon them; but the good training 
gained offsets the loss of time where the latter is small. 

In classes teachers must take the roll, and make a report 
to the principal at noon, night, after each period, or at the 
beginning of each period. The principal will find that his 
control of the school is greatly facilitated by following up 
the matters of attendance closely. It is well for him to de- 
vote the whole first period of the day to getting reports of 
absentees and telephoning to the homes where there is doubt 
in his mind about the cause of absence. Sometimes it is safe 
for the pupil of a class to make the report for the teacher 
and hang the slip on a hook outside the class-room door. 
The principal sends a pupil around to collect these reports, 
assembles them and keeps the school record of attendance. 
There is no excuse for careless records: they are the mark 
of a poor principal. 

Every principal should have a complete system of files. 
The card system is best. The card should show the pupil's 
name, age, birthday, nativity, parents' names, address, tele- 
phone number, schedule of studies, and remarks. Another 
card may show his grades, his characteristics, his vocational 
tendencies, and such other information as the principal may 
need in promoting the best interests of the pupil and of the 
school. Files should be kept under lock and key and in a 
fireproof cabinet, for if they are worth keeping at all they 
are worth preserving safe from curious outsiders. Here 
again the principal is known by his works, the systematiza- 
tion of his information, and his estimate of pupils. 

If the principal does not have a stenographer, he should 
himself learn to use a typewriter. He will do well to keep a 



ADMINISTRATION 157 

carbon copy of every letter he writes, every order or instruc- 
tion he gives, every report he makes, as well as the original 
of all communications he receives. These should be filed and 
indexed so that he can readily get at what he wants. This 
may cost him much work but it will be well worth while as 
a labor saving device. Cross files are worth while as are 
also indexes of information and data. After a card system 
has once been worked out, it does not take long to make the 
few entries necessary. A filing system that merely arranges 
correspondence alphabetically by the surname of the cor- 
respondent is not sufficient: there should be made an index 
of the contents of the correspondence. 

There are numerous reports constantly being called for 
by the superintendent's office or by others. These, with the 
regular reports of attendance, promotion cards, grade cards, 
financial statements, form a large amount of the clerical 
work. There are innumerable checks, room excuses, and 
passes to classes to be filled out and filed. Then there is the 
vast amount of supplies to be ordered from the central stock- 
room, to be apportioned to the teachers and to the janitors. 
An old school system will have all the blanks and form's 
necessary for this clerical work ; but a new school will have 
to attack the problem of making up these forms for its 
own use. 

In this connection is the principal's relation to the janitor. 
If the janitor is chosen for his efficiency and ability, he will 
keep the halls, rooms, windows, grounds, lawn, and toilets 
in perfect condition without suggestion from the principal. 
Otherwise, it becomes the duty of the chief administrative 
officer of the school to see that everything is in shipshape. 
One method of procedure is for the principal to make a 
regular tour of inspection every morning at a certain hour 
and to let nothing interfere with that job. He should first 



158 the: junior high school 

note on a card the things he wishes to see to, and then 
check them off as he completes his inspection. Here are 
some of the things : Rubbish on grounds, lawn, shrubbery, 
heating of the rooms, blackboard cleanliness, floor sweeping, 
desk cleaning and marring, curtains and light, windows and 
picture glass clean, toilets clean, marking on the walls, halls 
and offices. Furnaces should be inspected once a week, also 
fire escapes and fire hose Repairs should be attended to 
at once. 

5. Student organizations and activities. The principal 
of a junior high school will find that student organizations 
and activities constitute some of his hardest problems. Skill- 
fully managed they can be made to serve the very best pur- 
poses of education. They form a natural outlet for the 
exuberance and turbulence of the adolescent period. Sup- 
pression of these instincts would be fatal if it were even 
possible. They must be carefully guided and wisely used. 
Where they are quiescent or abortive, they should be stimu- 
lated and cultivated into normal existence. We shall attempt 
to describe what appears to us to be the best handling of the 
problems. 

It is well to organize the whole school into an association 
of the student body. If dues are exacted they should be so 
small as to be within the reach of all — not more than twenty- 
five cents per year. Pupils failing to pay during the first 
month of school should be given full membership upon 
doing some work for the school such as leveling the athletic 
grounds, irrigating the field, keeping certain records, or 
mending nets or athletic suits. The association should 
choose a president and vice-president from among the mem- 
bers of the graduating class. All assemblies of the school 
need not be considered student body association meetings; 
there will be many assemblies that the principal will want 



ADMINISTRATION 159 

to conduct himself and which would lack in effectiveness if 
he had to conform to the formality of an association organ- 
ization. The association may well care for such matters as 
school receptions and parties, school rallies, school debates, 
athletics, the school paper, the cooperative book-store, and 
the cafeteria. The association officers should feel it their 
privilege to support the principal and faculty in all forward 
and uplift movements; and the principal should take them 
into his confidence in many matters pertaining to student 
affairs. Financial matters should be carefully supervised 
and audited by the principal or by some teacher especially 
designated by him. 

For certain specific activities there may w T ell be other 
organizations, although some schools would prefer to regard 
them as communities or divisions of the student body asso- 
ciation. Such are debating clubs, literary socieites, class 
organizations, girls' clubs, boys' clubs, the band, glee clubs, 
athletic teams, the staff of the school paper, dramatic club. 
Care must be taken to prevent friction between the various 
societies. If they are all subordinate to the student body 
association, danger lurks in the officers of the larger body's 
assuming too much authority. We must not forget that chil- 
dren of this age lack adult responsibility and cannot attain 
it, no matter how conscientiously they may try. Care must 
be exercised to prevent clubs organized for educational pur- 
poses from becoming social fraternities of pernicious influ- 
ence and snobbish exclusiveness. 

Finally, there is the question of student self-government, 
so called. In this plan the pupils become responsible for the 
discipline in the school building and on the school grounds. 
There are pupil policemen, pupil attendance officers, pupil 
judges, pupil juries, pupil prosecutors and defenders. The 
faculty is usually regarded as the supreme court. The stu- 



160 the: junior high school 

dent body meeting assembled makes laws and ordinances 
governing conduct. It is fine and most excellent training in 
citizenship and political science. 

As a movement it started with the universities, has been 
carried out successfully by many high schools, and is being 
tried in several junior high schools. It makes more work 
for the faculty and requires infinite skill of the principal. In 
his own schools the writer has begun to try out the plan, 
entrusting at first only very limited powers to the students. 
As they develop the essential qualities, greater and greater 
authority will be extended to them. It will be necessary, 
however, for tradition to have time to establish good prece- 
dents and serviceable customs before the school can succeed 
on a large scale. 

6. Accessories of teaching. There are certain acces- 
sories of teaching that the principal has to attend to in order 
to secure smoothness in the working of the school machinery. 
One of these is supplies. Most school districts furnish pens, 
pencils, ink, paper, blotters, and similar materials; in somfe 
states, if not all, the law makes it obligatory upon the school 
board to furnish these things. Some rule should be estab- 
lished for giving out these supplies as they, of course, should 
not be furnished lavishly to the pupils. A reasonable number 
of things, say three pencils, one penholder, three writing 
tablets, ten blotters, may be furnished each semester. If 
the pupil loses or uses up all this material in less than the 
five months, he would have to purchase the things he needs. 
A co-operative store might be conducted for this purpose. 

Some schools furnish free textbooks. They are handled 
through the principal's office either directly or by a teacher 
designated by the principal. In a large school this work 
takes more time than a teacher may be expected to devote to 
it after school. If there is not a clerk to do this work, the 



ADMINISTRATION l6l 

teacher should be given one or two periods of school time 
for it. There is more involved in the furnishing of text- 
books than the mere money cost ; there is a high moral con- 
tent. Boys and girls do not contribute anything that causes 
a sacrifice ; they do not own the books ; they are responsible 
for public property. Then there are the habits of accounting 
for things, taking care of things, and feeling pride in posses- 
sion. Altogether, the furnishing of books free is so fraught 
with possibilities of good and evil that it is a very important 
matter. 

Where free textbooks are not provided, it is sometimes 
possible for the co-operative book store to rent them to the 
pupils at such a rate as to make a profit on the transaction. 
If this is done, it devolves upon the principal to keep careful 
check of the whole matter. This service will be of great 
advantage to pupils, especially where expensive instruments, 
such as mechanical drawing sets, are obtainable. As years 
go by, the store may accumulate sufficient surplus to enlarge 
its operations in many lines. 

The management and effective use of a moving picture 
plant entails upon the principal many administrative burdens. 
Ordinarily it will be necessary for him to operate the 
machine, arrange for securing proper educational films, work 
out the details of assembling classes, etc. If these matters 
are not carefully worked out and followed up by the princi- 
pal himself, he will find that the enthusiasm first displayed 
upon installing the machine will gradually wane and the 
visual methods of instruction will be discontinued altogether. 
The same may be said of other valuable aids to teaching. 
The tendency of the teacher is to neglect those methods of 
teaching that require elaborate preparation and irksome de- 
lays. If globes, charts, stereoscopic views, herbaria, in- 



l62 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

accessible specimens, etc., are to be used, the principal must 
make it his business to help get things ready. 

Every junior high school should have a good working 
library, well-stored with books, and easily accessible to stu- 
dents. Someone must attend to the purchasing of books and 
miagazines, cataloguing them, and issuing them to pupils, 
Then someone must advise teachers and children what to 
read and where to find it. Frequently debaters need help in 
getting material. It is desirable to make up bibliographies 
on various subjects to be taught. The principal has to get 
someone to do these things or else do them himself. In a 
small school the principal would probably find it best to 
assign a teacher to this work. In a large school, a librarian 
should be employed. 

7. School interruptions, exercises, etc. Among the 
problems with which the principal has to cope are the in- 
terruptions to regular routine work — some pernicious, some 
wholesome, some preventible, some unpreventible. Occa- 
sionally the good of the school demands that routine work 
be interrupted for an hour, a day, or a week and the chil- 
dren be given something that educates, elevates or rests 
them. Vacations and holidays are usually decided upon by 
the board of education or the superintendent. Sometimes 
there is a demand for a slightly early afternoon dismissal, 
for a short rainy-day session, or for an hour on the lawn. 
Such matters are put up to the principal. If too frequent, 
they greatly hinder good school work; if very, very infre- 
quent, something good may be lost. 

After all, it is a matter for the principal to weigh and con- 
sider, to experiment with and to record results. How often 
shall I have fire-drill ? How shall I conduct it ? One thing 
is essential to make a fire-drill worth anything — everybody 
must be required to leave the building, teachers and princi- 



ADMINISTRATION 163 

pal included. Speed is desirable, lack of conflict should pre- 
vail. It is far best that no one except the principal should 
know whether it is a fire-drill or a real fire. If a careful 
direction is given to the school at the beginning of each 
semester, one drill per month should be frequent enough. 

Assemblies should be called when the principal has some- 
thing important to give. Many principals keep a note of 
matters as they come up, and when several have accumu- 
lated, they call the students together and announce all the 
matters at one time. A principal will invite noted speakers 
and others who happen to be in town at the time to come to 
the school and deliver a message to the assembled students. 
It mjay be a distinguished singer, artist, actor, author, gov- 
ernment official, or other person whom the pupils would 
profit by seeing and hearing speak. The principal will have 
to be careful to stave off people who wish to make use of the 
school for advertising their wares or talents. 

Some other problems in this connection are the manage- 
ment of telephone calls, the disposal of photographers, and 
the meeting with school-book men. Many schools have re- 
moved the telephones because of the temptation to parents 
to use them on the simplest pretexts. The telephone girl 
becomes a slave to parents who want this child to do this or 
that before coming home at night. Other schools have a 
rule that no pupil or teacher shall be called out of class 
except upon extremely serious matters. Pupils are not per- 
mitted to use the school telephone except upon school busi- 
ness. A charge of five cents for the use of the 'phone would 
probably stop its indiscriminate use. In many towns pho- 
tographers pester the principal with requests to permit them 
to take the pictures of classes, groups of pupils, or interiors 
of rooms, offices, and apparatus. The principal will be 
expected to guard the interests of the school children and 



164 THK JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

not permit interruptions and loss of pupils' time. Represen- 
tatives of school-book companies visit the school frequently 
and consume much time of principal and teachers. This 
time is not wasted ; in fact the selection of proper text and 
supplementary books is of the very highest value. Such 
representatives are usually courteous and considerate. The 
principal will arrange for their meeting the teachers without 
interfering with the regular work of the school. 

8. Moral guidance. In discussing this subject at this 
place it must be borne in mind by the reader that we are 
treating it purely as a part of the administrative functions of 
the principal and teachers. If it were treated in full, it 
should properly occupy a chapter of a book of this kind. 
We have preferred to discuss moral education in connection 
with each subject as it has come up. 

Unquestionably, the formation of moral character is of 
tremendous importance throughout the school age, and the 
period of adolescence is especially fraught with possibilities. 
We have spoken of the adolescent age as that of religious 
awakening, of conversion, and of emotional religious experi- 
ence. It is also a period of the awakening of social con- 
sciousness and responsibility. Psychologically, it is a period 
of doubt, introspection, brooding, self-examination, self-re- 
proach and condemnation, of a feeling of unworthiness. But 
it is, likewise, an age of stubbornness, rebellion against 
restraint, violent passion, ill temper, greediness, carelessness 
in speech, and the awakening of sexual desire. These anti- 
moral and anti-social instincts find expression in laziness, 
truancy, slovenliness, slang, disrespect, over-dressing, over- 
eating, swearing, dancing, smoking, sexual vices, lying, and 
thievery. While the sins of adolescent girls are less spec- 
tacular and apparent than those of boys, they are neverthe- 
less just as real and just as undermining to moral character. 



ADMINISTRATION 165 

The tendency of parents is to minimize the importance of 
adolescent excesses ; the tendency of the church is to over- 
estimate their importance. The position the school should 
take is one of sympathetic treatment of the adolescent victim, 
who is not responsible for the temptations. 

Something wholesome must needs be substituted for the 
bad. Principals and teachers cannot shut their eyes to what 
is going^on; they must create a clean atmosphere for the 
school. VWe knew of a small high school where the teachers 
all left the building at noon, where the boys and girls danced 
during the absence of the teachers, where flirtations had 
sapped the vitality of the school, where boys and girls sat 
in single seats together during intermission and even during 
school hours, where swearing was common on the school 
grounds, where cheating in school and in athletics was the 
rule, where books of the school and supplies were stolen 
daily, where truancy went unpunished and unnoticed, where 
disorder was rampant, where the principal was assaulted by 
several boys, where obscene literature and pictures circu- 
lated among the pupils of both sexes, where the whole week 
was a feverish preparation for Friday night's dance. J This 
was a high school that had no eleventh grade and fewer 
than a dozen pupils in the twelfth. It was practically a 
junior high school, and the problems existing in it are dupli- 
cated in every such school. 

The principal that undertakes the moral guidance of such 
a school has a tremendous task. His teachers must be care- 
fully chosen and carefully assigned to strategic positions 
where offenders can be detected and offences prevented. The 
junior high school must not be made a reformatory or a peni- 
tentiary. If it devotes its main attention to dealing with 
offenders one by one, it will soon meet destruction. It must 
be organized with the idea of giving adolescents so much of 



166 ths junior high school 

good to do that the bad cannot creep in. Here the school 
must rely on physical exercises, clean sports, manual activi- 
ties, pure social pleasures, correct diet, clean but absorbingly 
interesting books, simple dress (school uniforms if neces- 
sary to curb a propensity already existing), politeness and 
good manners. The underlying principle is, keep the ado- 
lescent so busy doing right things that he will not have time 
to do wrong. This may extend to the point of co-operating 
with the pupil's home in a 24-hour daily program. Suc- 
cessful will be that principal who secures the confidence of 
the homes so that he can supervise not only the school hours 
of the pupil but the home hours also. If he can go further 
and work out with the churches a program for Sundays, his 
influence for good will be unbounded. 

Suppose, however, that a principal and faculty find a 
junior high school in the condition of the high school 
described above, what can they do? To expel gross offend- 
ers and try to reform petty offenders may become necessary. 
But the chief task to be attacked will be the educating of the 
school in higher standards of right. This means a well 
planned campaign that must involve sympathy, resourceful- 
ness, wisdom, tact, understanding of adolescent's mental 
activities, force, and even, perphaps, the mailed fist. The 
manly, the heroic, the courageous, the chivalric, thejvaMike, ' 
the religious spirit of boys must be appealed to along the line 
pursued by the Boy Scouts organization. The pure, the 
chaste, the health-seeking, the out-door, the fun-loving, the 
religious spirit of girls must be appealed to along lines 
adopted by the Camp Fire clubs. It may be necessary to talk 
very clearly to each sex, or even to assign boys and girls to 
separate classes or schools. Moral guidance is a paramount 
function of the junior high school; it must succeed in this 
work no matter how drastic may be the actions necessary. 



CHAPTER TEN 

RELATION TO THE SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL AND 
JUNIOR COLLEGE 

In this chapter we wish to describe the effect of the junior 
high school movement upon the upper secondary school, and 
the latter's reflex action upon the former. This is by no 
means purely prognostication, for the results described in 
this chapter have already been fully realized in communities 
where the movement has been long in existence. 

1 . The senior high school and the tenth grade. His- 
torically it is a fact that a lower institution tends to reach up 
and seize upon the matters that have been originated by the 
higher. In recent years we have seen this go on with accel- 
erated speed. College athletics, nomenclature, mannerisms, 
student self-government, methods of teaching, courses of 
study have been seized upon by high schools and adopted. 
Colleges have copied the universities, have tried, in fact, to 
become universities, and in many cases have succeeded. The 
universities have striven to become graduate institutions and 
have succeeded. The intermediate school movement was 
given impetus by the ambition of seventh and eighth grade 
teachers to reach up and do high school work. The author 
knows of several junior high schools that were originally 
organized as seventh and eighth grade schools, or sixth, 
seventh and eighth grade institutions. They soon began to 
do high school work and in a remarkably short time had 
annexed the ninth grade. 

With this strong tendency, it is altogether likely that the 
junior high school will gradually seize upon the tenth grade. 
It has already done so in many communities. This has 
happened even where no attempt was made to do four 

167 



i68 the; junior high school 

grades in three years. It has been gradual, almost unno- 
ticed. Where four of the sixteen college entrance credits 
were required for entrance to the senior high school, there 
are many boys and girls who find at the end of the ninth 
year that they have actually earned five. Others complete 
the year with only three credits or even fewer and find that 
they must stay another year. Such pupils — and they are 
numerous — enter senior high school practically as eleventh 
grade students. For a long time the tenth year work is 
offered in both the higher and the lower institutions, but this 
duplication is uneconomical. The question with the admin- 
istration becomes, which school shall do the tenth grade? 
The lower salaries, the smaller laboratory equipment re- 
quired, the ambition of the lower school, the pre-occupation 
of the higher school with a reaching up to do college work 
— all combine to give the victory to the junior high school. 

2. The upper secondary school's tendency to become 
college-like. Paralleling this evolution is the junior college 
movement, which in the few years of its existence has made 
even more rapid progress than the intermediate school. The 
reason for its greater swiftness is undoubtedly due to the 
fact that the high school was already a well organized insti- 
tution with great power and prestige, whereas the interme- 
diate school had to become established before it could begin 
to reach upward. High school teachers and administrators 
are well organized, well paid, high spirited and aggressive. 
It would manifestly be impossible to keep them down, even 
were it desirable. Once aroused their ambition to do college 
work, they moved forward with characteristic impetuosity 
toward an inevitable goal. That goal was the annexation, to 
every good-sized high school, of the two first years of col- 
lege, commonly called the junior college . This movement is 
gaining in force. In California alone there are now more 



RELATION TO SENIOR HIGH AND JUNIOR COLLEGE 169 

than twenty high schools with full-fledged junior colleges. 
A law has just been passed by the California Legislature that 
encourages the establishment of a junior college in every 
county, and in connection with every city high school. 

Whither does this movement tend? If the high school 
had continued to be a four-year school, it is likely that the 
junior college would have held aloof as a post-graduate but 
separate institution. In time such a junior college would, 
by the theory described under paragraph I, have reached 
up and secured the third and possiby fourth years of college. 
This has actually happened in a few cities where junior col- 
leges have grown into four-year city colleges or universities. 
This result would have been deplorable because it would 
have left unsolved the problem of making a distinct separa- 
tion of the fields of activity of colleges and universities. We 
feel that the present duplication of work in these two insti- 
tutions and the consequent rivalry does not result advan- 
tageously for the cause of education. 

But the high school has not continued to be a four-year 
institution. The junior high school movement has taken 
from it one year and will in a short time take away a second 
year. This will reduce the old high school to a two-year 
curriculum — the eleventh and twelfth grades. Thus shorn 
of its lower two years, it reaches up and takes over the two 
first years of college. It is ridiculous to suppose that such 
an anomalous condition will continue to exist. Unquestion- 
ably the senior high school and junior college must become 
welded into one organic whole, functioning as one insti- 
tution. 

Assuming this amalgamation as an inevitable certainty, 
the inquiry naturally arises as to what will be the nature of 
the new institution. Again we are led by an established rule 
that an institution takes its flavor from its upper-classmen, 



I70 TH£ JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

this in spite of the fact that its lower classmen excel in 
numbers. The fact is so apparent that is not open to debate. 
It must follow that the senior high school- junior college is 
to become collegiate in its nature rather than like a high 
school. It should therefore be given such a name as to 
indicate its nature. We presume for convenience to call it 
the collegiate school or the people's college. The term 
"junior" is relative in significance and to describe a per- 
manent institution could not long endure. The junior high 
school must become the high school ; the junior college, the 
college of the future. 

3. Nature of the people's college. It may safely be 
assumed that the collegiate school is not to be simply a 
college, that is, it will not be just what a conventional col- 
lege now is. It will become more and more collegiate, but 
the presence of younger students will prevent its becoming 
what we now know as a college. Its history and heredity 
will prevent that. Born of a college father and a high school 
mother, the collegiate school will resemble both its parents 
but will not actually be either. It serves a new generation, is 
brought up under different conditions and influenced by a 
different environment. 

Let us examine for a moment its probable characteristics : 
It will be democratic in principle and in composition. The 
conventional college is aristocratic in principle appealing to 
only one class. That class is supposed to contain the best 
brains of the state. But the test for admission to this class — 
called intellectual — is a superficial examination based upon 
proficiency in certain studies themselves superficial. If a 
boy can master algebra and geometry, physics, chemistry, 
ancient and modern history, and a foreign language, he is 
considered intellectually an aristocrat, and per se is admitted 
to the conventional college. One hears nowadays the fre- 



RELATION TO SENIOR HIGH AND JUNIOR COLLEGE 171 

quent statement that it is best for some boys that they never 
go to college, for, forsooth, they are incapable of doing col- 
lege work! The colleges turn back many from their doors 
and many more they eliminate later by examinations. These 
boys, say the wise ones, are incapable of acquiring a college 
education, and would be better off doing something for a 
living, learning a trade, farming, or laboring by the day! 
(It is hard to refrain from questioning such wise ones 
whether such a college education — impossible to the masses 
— is worth while to anybody.) 

The people's college is growing up in opposition to, or in 
competition with, the conventional college. It may, there- 
fore, be assumed that it will tack off at a different angle. The 
foundation of this new institution is the principle of in- 
tellectual democracy. It is a college to train the minds, 
bodies and souls of all the people. Hence, we shall expect 
to find in its student body people representing all varieties 
of intellectual characteristics. Such catholicity of purpose, 
such broadness of scope must make a strong appeal to the 
youth of America. Trained in such an institution the people 
of our country will tend to become more and more demo- 
cratic. 

In the second place, the people's college will be a finish- 
ing school more largely than a university preparatory school. 
It may be assumed that most students will enter it at fifteen 
or sixteen years of age and will finish the regular four-year 
course by the age of nineteen or twenty. This is a good 
age at which to begin a professional course at university ; but 
it is also an age of sufficient maturity to justify beginning a 
career. Entering an occupation at the age of twenty, a man 
should be self-sustaining from the first and within three or 
four years should be capable of supporting a family. A girl 
finishing school thus early may enjoy a period of four or 



172 



THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 



five years in a self-supporting occupation and still nUarry 
early. On the other hand, completing her school education 
at twenty, she finds herself sufficiently mature in purpose to 
marry with judgment. It may, therefore, be assumed that the 
courses in the people's college will aim to complete the stu- 
dent's school education and to prepare him to enter directly 
into the adult world. 

In the third place, the collegiate school is to be predom- 
inantly vocational. The argument that a person should not 
enter an occupation at an early age does not have much 
weight in this case. In the seven-year or eight-grade second- 
ary course it is possible to give him broad culture and social 
and civic education as well. But as he advances in this 
course the vocational element becomes more and more pre- 
dominant until in the last year it practically approximates 
the conditions of the adult world where the vocation occupies 
three-fourths of the day. An illustration will disclose our 



nth Year 
Agriculture 
Chemistry 
U. S. History 

English 
Literature 



12th Year 13th Year 

Horticulture Agronomy 
Farm Mechanics Irrigation 
Economics Farm Bkpg. 



Dramatics 



Art 



14th Year 

Eive Stock 

Soil Analysis 

Farm 

Management 

Farm-Home- 
Planning 



In this course agriculture is the occupation aimed at. In 
the first year of the people's college the student takes one 
directly vocational study, one science-vocational study, one 
civic study, and one culture study. In the second year two 
courses are directly vocational, one couse is civic-vocational, 
and one is cultural. In the third year, three courses are 
directly vocational, and one course is cultural. Finally, in 
the fourth year, all four courses are directly vocational, 
although one of the four is cultural-vocational. In such a 



RELATION TO SENIOR HIGH AND JUNIOR COLLEGE 173 

program we find the occupation booking larger and larger, 
the science, civic, and cultural subjects contributing in- 
directly, then directly to the main current. This is as it is in 
the adult world where the vocation is the central artery of 
life with physical pleasures, cultural enjoyment, scientific 
method, and civic activities contributing to it and dependent 
upon it. 

4. Effect of the people's college upon the junior high 
school curriculum. Let us first ascertain what proportion 
of boys and girls will take in people's college the occupa- 
tional courses and what proportion will prepare for uni- 
versity or other professional school. Of the boys finishing 
high school throughout the country only 47 per cent go to 
college or university and fewer than 6 per cent take profes- 
sional courses. Of the girls in high school 92 per cent even- 
tually marry and enter the vocation of keeping house. About 
51 per cent go to university, normal or other professional 
institution. But those who graduate from high school form 
only one half of those who finish the ninth grade. It may 
therefore be assumed that about 24 per cent of boys and 26 
per cent of girls entering people's college (tenth grade) will 
go to university, college or normal school. The college 
preparatory feature of the collegiate school should there- 
fore be of far less importance than the occupational features. 

This puts it squarely up to the junior high school to give 
to 75 per cent of both boys and girls most of the physical, 
scientific, civic, and cultural education that they are ever to 
get. From the specimen program; given in section 3 — which 
is essentially like all others — it is seen that one year each of 
chemistry, United States history, literature, art, dramatics 
and economics is all of the non-vocational work that may be 
gotten in people's college while two other courses are gen- 
eral enough to be accepted for entrance to university — that 



174 the; junior high school 

is, two years of solid work. In the past educators have 
pointed out that four solid years of physical, scientific, civic, 
and cultural education are none too many for the good of the 
American people. If we agree with those premises, we must 
conclude that two years of this kind of education must be 
obtained in the intermediate school. This would leave only 
three-fifths of a junior high school year as the maximum for 
vocational work. If fifteen courses are offered in junior 
high school, twelve should be of the type described above, 
and three may be vocational. 

For the boy whose economic circumstances or whose ad- 
vanced age does not force the vocational work upon him in 
the junior high school, this heavy diet of non-occupational 
courses will be highly suitable. It may be hoped that the 
boy will not have to take in junior high school any more 
vocational or prevocational work than will be sufficient to 
help him and others determine what occupation field he 
would do best to enter. He may then have time to develop 
those other interests that are so essential to a well-rounded 
American. Chief among these is physical development 
which includes health, knowledge of nature's laws, manual 
dexterity, motor control, and muscularity. These become 
the basis sine qua non of all education. Ranking next in 
importance is civic or social education which embraces 
world history, American history, civic duties and responsi- 
bilities, and community well-being. There is, of course, in- 
separably connected with social education the necessity for 
a good command of the English language which is an essen- 
tial of community well-being. The scientific spirit and 
method rank high in the aims of junior high school training, 
most readily acquired by means of the sciences. Finally, 
culture or the ability to enjoy the refining things of life, 
must occupy much of the time of adolescent education. Here 



RELATION TO SENIOR HIGH AND JUNIOR COLLEGE 175 

we classify English literature, art, music, and in a measure 
history, science, manual training. 

There is, however, to be cared for the boy or girl who 
intends to enter a profession. This means that he is to take 
a university course after he has finished the people's college, 
and in the training of these young people we must be guided 
by what the universities lay down as the necessary basis for 
a professional education. It of course differs for various 
professions and for various universities. For the profession 
of law, historical, legal, logical, linguistic studies are recom- 
mended by the university authorities. The secondary schools 
must therefore provide two years of Latin, two of pure 
mathematics, one of advanced civics, one of logic, two of 
English composition, and varying amounts of political 
science, economics, advanced history, foreign languages, de- 
bate, public speaking, science — in short, so much that seven 
years are not too long for accomplishing it all. The inevit- 
able result is that it throws back upon the junior high school 
the giving of the Latin, mathematics, sciences, and much 
history. If the pupil manages to squeeze in physical educa- 
tion, scientific training and a few cultural courses, he will 
probably have to work overtime. The same may be said of 
requirements for other professional courses. 

Thus we find crowded into the three junior high school 
years much of what formerly was done in high school; at 
least the first two years of high school. This consisted of 
physical development, scientific education, civic education, 
culture, and university preparatory courses. 

5. Effect of people's college upon junior high schools 
in cities. Just a word should be said of the relations exist- 
ing between collegiate and junior high schools in a city 
where there exists one people's college or more than one. 
The problems are not essentially different in a city large 



176 the junior high school 

enough to have five colleges from those in a city having but 
one college The questions arise out of conditions where one 
board of education governs both the higher secondary school 
and the lower ones. Such a city will have a superintendent 
whose sympathies and interests will lead him to promote 
harmony between the two grades of schools. He will see to 
it that the higher school does not dictate to the lower schools, 
and that the lower do not train the children away from the 
higher. It will be his desire to secure perfect articulation 
between the schools so that pupils are promoted from one to 
the other without friction, loss of time or credits, and with 
such smoothness that there will be no dropping out of school 
at this point. 

There will be administratively many problems that will 
have to be met as they arise, such as the question of whether 
there shall be diplomas issued to those finishing the junior 
high school and whether there shall be graduation exercises. 
There seems to be a desire on the part of the students to 
have graduation exercises at which diplomas shall be issued 
to them by high authority. This diploma should state that 
it is a certificate of satisfactory completion of a certain 
curriculum and of promotion to the collegiate school. There 
should be a feeling on the part of the pupil that he must go 
on to the higher school. It will be the aim of the superin- 
tendent to get 100 per cent of the graduates to enter the col- 
lege and to do it at once. Graduation exercises will be held 
in the middle of the school year when no long vacation may 
interfere with the continuity of the work. After the 
diplomas have been presented, the dean of the collegiate 
school should address the graduates welcoming them into 
his institution. He will have an opportunity at this time of 
influencing those who are undecided about their future. 
Even before finishing the junior high school, the pupils will 



RELATION TO SENIOR HIGH AND JUNIOR COLLEGE 1 77 

have been under the instruction of the vocational adviser. 
He will have made out all the college courses of study of 
those who are about to graduate. There will be very little 
break between the lower and the higher school. 

Promoting by subjects, there are bound to be some cases 
of uneven promotion. If eight credits are required for admis- 
sion to the people's college, some pupils will graduate from 
the lower school with nine or even ten. ' Shall 
these extra credits be recognized in the collegiate school, or 
shall they be regarded merely as making the pupil more fit 
to do the college work? Shall there be a standard grade of 
work in the junior high school in order that the pupil may 
be permitted to do college work? What should be that 
standard or recommendable grade? Shall the collegiate 
school maintain classes in algebra, geometry, etc., for the 
benefit of pupils who did not take those branches in the 
junior high school and yet who now need them for certain 
new purposes unforseen when the pupil was in the junior 
high school? If not, what shall be the plan of taking -care 
of such cases? Shall there be a standard of excellence in 
the use of English required for admission to the collegiate 
school ? Shall there be a physical standard ? These ■ are 
questions for each superintendent to answer. They cannot 
be answered ipse dixit or ex cathedra. The broad principle 
must underlie these answers, that the people's college is for 
the masses and that it must be within the possibility of any 
normal person to enter and do work in it. 

6. Relation of people's college to junior high schools 
outside cities. The California Legislature has set the mini- 
mum limit of taxable property of a district maintaining a 
junior college at $3,000,000 assessed valuation. This would 
mean a city of not less than 5,000 population. Such a city 
would probably have twelve hundred pupils distributed as 



I78 THU JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

follows : Grades 1 to 6, inclusive, 600 pupils ; grades 7 to io y 
inclusive, 300 pupils; grades 11 to 14, inclusive, 300 pupils. 
Such a city would, if compact, maintain one collegiate school 
and only one junior high school. The rule seems to be a 
reasonable one, for a people's college could scarcely succeed 
with fewer than 300 students and 15 teachers. 

What shall be done in cities of fewer than 5,000 people? 
Let us consider several classes of such communities in an 
attempt to work out approximately accurate plans. 

(a) Towns of 2,000 to 5,000 surrounded by well settled 
rural districts : Such a comtmunity should organize a union 
collegiate school district for the maintenance of one such 
higher secondary school. The town itself would have a 
junior high school to which pupils living outside the limits 
might come. Or, if there were in the union district one 
village of, say 500 people, such village should form the cen- 
ter for a union junior high school district. In any case the 
people's college would probably be governed by a different 
board of education, and there would arise problems of 
adjustment distinct from the city's. 

(b) Towns of 2,000 to 5,000 not surrounded by well 
settled rural districts: Such a town could not profitably 
maintain a full people's college, but would best maintain in 
one building a junior and senior high school. In such an 
institution the problems would not differ materially from the 
existing high school problems; it would simply be a five- 
year instead of a four-year secondary school. In certain 
lines it might be more vocational than our present-day high 
schools. The town should provide for the support of its 
graduates through the thirteenth and fourteenth grades of 
some county people's college or at a privately endowed 
college. 



RELATION TO SENIOR HIGH AND JUNIOR COLLEGE 179 

(c) In towns of 500 to 2,000 surrounded by a thickly 
populated rural district, the same arrangements as those 
described in (b) might be secured. If such a town were 
within the shadow of a larger town, the smaller would be 
better served to unite in a union college district with the 
larger, at the same time maintaining a junior high school 
of its own. 

(d) Towns of 500 to 2,000, not surrounded by a thickly 
populated rural community, would be wisest to maintain a 
first-class junior high school, and maintain its graduates at 
some county collegiate school where board and room could 
be partly worked out by the student on the college farm. 

(e) Communities smaller than 500 should attach them- 
selves to a near-by larger town in a union college district or 
union junior high school district. 

(f) A community smaller than 500 people and standing 
alone should maintain a good elementary school, and if 
sufficient funds exist the two first years of a junior high 
school. Such a community would not have more than 100 
pupils, twenty of whom would be in the seventh and eighth 
grades. It could then have one teacher's full time for the 
junior high school. 

In discussing the relation of the people's college to the 
junior high school, only communities described under (a), 
(c), and (e) need be considered; and these all have the 
same problem. That problem arises over the fact that the 
two schools are under different boards of education. Greater 
tact and larger educational perspective must, under such con- 
ditions, be required of the dean of the College and of the 
principal of the junior high school. Certain definite rules 
would have to be laid down and adhered to in good, faith by 
both heads and by both boards. Lacking a district superin- 
tendent, the county superintendent should wisely, tactfully, 



180 THE) JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

and with clear educational ideas exercise supervisory and 
conciliatory jurisdiction over the relations of the two 
schools. 

It would be wise and proper for the dean to take the 
initiative in a case of this kind and work out rules and 
regulations with the principals of the lower schools. If he 
does not take the initiative the county superintendent or 
one of the junior high school principals should take the 
initiative. There should be no misunderstanding of tihe pur- 
pose of secondary education, the raison ffetre of a junior 
high school and of a people's college. It should be clearly 
seen that each school has a definite problem to solve, and 
the other school should co-operate to assist in making the 
solution easy and successful. 



CHAPTER ELEVEN 

AN IDEAL JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

We propose in this chapter to outline the conditions neces- 
sary to the institution and conduct of an ideal junior high 
school. 

1 . The city. We have shown in a previous chapter that 
a district must contain a certain number of inhabitants, chil- 
dren, and wealth, or be surrounded by rural communities 
that make up the deficit. It is best that the city be compact 
so that no pupil will have more tfhan a mile to walk to 
school. The ideal would be a population of at least 5,000, or 
in a larger city a population of at least 5,000 to 8,000 to each 
144 blocks. A square twelve blocks by twelve blocks with 
the school building at its centre would be the proper condi- 
tion as to size and population. Cities with a scattered popu- 
lation would have to provide transportation for their pupils. 
The school population of such a square should be from 1,200 
to 1,800, and the number of children from; 12 to 15 years of 
age would be from 300 to 400. 

The city should have an assessed valuation of at least 
$5,000,000 to each junior high school maintained. If taxed 
to support such a school, a twenty-cent rate would produce 
a sufficient revenue. If the $5,000,000 valuation is spread 
evenly over the entire square, each block will be valued at 
$35,000 — houses and lots. This will mean a good class of 
houses with excellent improvements. In a large city many 
squares would not have such a large valuation; but the 
extremely high value of business and industrial property 
would bring up the average for the entire city. 

The people of the city must not only be prosperous with 
reasonably large families, but they must be public spirited 

181 



l82 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

and progressive. They must take an interest in the public 
weal, especially in the education of their children and the 
children of the whole community, yes, and in the children 
of the future generation as well. They must put the educa- 
tion of their children above their own selfish comforts. They 
must try to understand what the schools are doing, and then 
fall in line and boost. They must believe that society is 
evolutionary, and that it is their duty to assist in progressive 
movements. Finally, they must be willing not only to talk 
and vote for progressive movements in education, but also 
to pay taxes — and to contribute in reasonable amounts for 
their children's good. 

2. The board of education. With such people, it may 
be assumed that the city will elect to the board of education 
men and women of high purpose and good judgment. The 
members should themselves be public-spirited and willing 
to devote a reasonable amount of time and much deep 
thought to school problems. Each member should feel his 
responsibility to the whole city, but especially to the welfare 
of all the children and to the future of society, for within 
their keeping is the strongest social force in America. The 
board is a legislative, not an administrative body; conse- 
quently, a board of fifteen members meeting two to four 
times each year is better than a three-member board meeting 
every week. The people do not expect an unpaid board 
member to devote any considerable part of his time to 
school affairs. A large board will furnish a wider opinion 
and more diversified views than a small one. 

The board's organization should be simple so that busi- 
ness may be done by the board en banc rather than by com- 
mittees. It should employ experts and administrators to fur- 
nish data to guide it in its deliberations and to carry out its 
decrees. A president and a secretary will be necessary, but 



AN IDEM, JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 1 83 

further organization will complicate rather than simplify the 
transaction of business. A board has authority only en banc. 
An individual member or a committee has no legal authority, 
and cannot of course transact business for the district. 

The board should be composite, some members conserva- 
tive, others liberal, some judiciously careful, others con- 
structively original, but all fair-minded and progressive. The 
board should not fear an idea or plan because it is new or 
unique. By their attitude toward all questions, they should 
inspire the superintendent to original thinking and wide in- 
vestigation. They should expect, yes require, him to keep 
informed on educational movements everywhere; and not 
come before them with a suggestion until he can give the 
board considerable, if not complete, data upon which to base 
a judgment and to determine action. With this correct and 
sympathetic attitude toward their chief employee, they can 
reasonably expect that he will be frank with them and will 
respect their judgment and abide by their decisions. 

3. The superintendent. As the chief administrative 
officer of the board, the superintendent should keep within 
his sphere of activity. He has no legislative functions, 
except as they are within the limits delegated to him by the 
board of education. He should always bear in mind that he 
is directly responsible to the board, and that he cannot rise 
above the source of his authority. Nevertheless, he has 
large discretionary powers and within certain limits is 
supreme. He should have a discriminating judgment keen 
enough to determine what are policies and what are discre- 
tionary powers. He is the chief adviser to the board. This 
should sober him and make him open and full in advising it 
on all matters. He should from the beginning of his employ- 
ment map out a plan of relationship between himself and the 
board and should ask that the board definitely adopt the plan. 



184 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

Thereafter he should be careful to live up to the full letter 
and spirit of the plan. That plan should provide that he be 
the ultimate authority in matters pertaining to supervision of 
teaching, nomination of teachers, and making of the 
curricula. 

The superintendent should have a profound interest in the 
education of adolescents ; he should feel, if the individuals 
composing society are to be advanced in civilization and in 
physical and mental perfection, that advance must be secured 
by properly educating adolescents. He must have a deep 
understanding of the physiology and psychology of adoles- 
cence, and be acquainted with the wisest plans and methods 
of educating girls and boys in this all-important period of 
their lives. To make the junior high school function as it 
should, the superintendent must appreciate deeply its signifi- 
cance, do all in his power to make the conditions for its 
best work possible, and take an active, personal interest in its 
proper functioning. 

In building the curricula for the entire school system, he 
should see every part in its relation to all others, and should 
put proper relative values on the various parts. The curri- 
culum should be fitted to the needs and to the natures of the 
children — not upon the needs or nature, but upon both. In 
it the period of adolescence should have special attention, 
for here more than anywhere else the course-makers can 
most easily go astray or utterly fail to make education fit 
the conditions. Unfortunately there are as yet few books 
on the subject of adolescence that deal with it in a scientific, 
empirical way. We need far more measurements, surveys, 
statistical information, and unbiased digests of these data. 
No superintendent has a right, however, to fail to familiar- 
ize himself with all that has already been written. The curri- 



AN IDEAL JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 1 85 

culum must embody all the latest and best information 
obtainable. 

4. The grounds. The site for the junior high school 
should be in the centre of the square from which the school 
draws its pupils. Five acres is the minimum amount of 
ground, the buildings themselves occupying two acres, the 
athletic fields two more acres, while one acre should be used 
for gardens and agricultural experimentation. 

The kind and placement of buildings are matters that will 
vary according to the conditions of the community and the 
ideals of those in authority. One plan is to have one large 
central building containing twenty or more rooms, the prin- 
cipal's offices, and other necessary rooms. Smaller, but 
suitable buildings will occupy flanking positions, designed 
to add to the beauty of the whole scheme. One such build- 
ing would be devoted entirely to an assembly hall ; another 
would house the manual training shops, and cooking. and 
sewing rooms ; a third would contain the science laboratories, 
propagating rooms, museums, junior chambers of com- 
merce ; while a fourth might house the library, reading room, 
art gallery and workshop, and the music conservatory. The 
arrangement and connecting of these buildings will be a 
matter of taste. A beautiful effect is secured by connecting 
them by artistic arcades. Plenty of lawn, some shrubbery, 
and clusters of trees here and there, add greatly to the 
beauty of the plan. 

Athletic fields should be provided for football, baseball, 
track, tennis, basketball, handball courts, and other games. 
Two acres will not give more than enough room for these 
activities, and in all probability some of these sports will 
have to alternate in the use of the grounds. This is possible 
with football, track and baseball. The acre-farm should be 
so located as to display to the public the work being done, 



l86 THK JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

and to get best results. It should be in the open sun and 
some distance from the groups of trees. Gardens and 
athletic courts should be protected by mesh-wire fences from 
careless marauders. 

5. The pupils. A junior high school cannot do its best 
work with fewer than three hundred pupils or more than 
eight hundred pupils. The ideal is four hundred. This per- 
mits individuality, acquaintanceship with each other, close 
kinship of interests ; it is also numerous enough to allow 
diversified courses, election of studies, a feeling of the big- 
ness and importance of the school. Such a school could find 
in its number good material in sufficient numbers to carry on 
all school "activities." 

Drawn from the same neighborhood, such a group would 
and should be homogeneous in character and in age. Wide 
variation in age does not make for the welfare of the school 
or permit the highest self-expression of the student body. 
The social standing and financial means of such a group 
would be fairly uniform. The physical development of the 
members of each class should also be fairly uniform, and the 
wise principal will so assign classes as to group in each class 
pupils of the same stage of adolescence. The mental develop- 
ment and the educational background of the pupils should be 
as far as possible homogeneous. 

The spirit of the pupils should be ambitious, loyal, altru- 
istic, tractable. Ambition for themselves individually, ex- 
pressed in terms of liking school, determination to secure an 
education, and willingness to endure petty discomforts — 
this and ambition for the school are indispensable to a suc- 
cessful junior high school. The pupils must be loyal to the 
school, and willing to work hard and restrain their bad ten- 
dencies in order to build up the reputation of the school. 
Each pupil must have considerable altruism, and be willing 



AN IDEAL JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 187 

to help his fellow-students in all right lines. Pupils must 
be tractable — willing to listen to reason and to follow the 
best judgment of principal and teachers. This does not 
mean a lowly spirit, or blind obedience. That would not be 
desirable even if it could be secured in a group of early ado- 
lescent boys and girls. 

6. The buildings. We have spoken of the number and 
arrangement of the buildings. They should be of modern 
construction, fire-proof throughout, not over two stories in 
height. A basement for furnace rooms, store-rooms, toilets, 
etc., may be constructed, but it is far better to have these 
on the same floor with the school rooms. Space may be 
saved and convenience obtained by building the stairways 
on the outside of the building instead of fire-escapes, and 
covered artistically by porch roofs, A play-room or gym- 
nasium may occupy a separate building, or in case of lack 
of space may be on the roof of the main building. In the 
latter case the roof should be constructed of material that 
will deaden the sound. 

The school rooms will be of sufficient size, well ventilated 
and lighted, and sufficient in number. The principal's offices 
should be commodious enough for the work to be done, 
there being a private office with an exit directly into the 
hall. It ought not to be necessary for the principal to send 
a reprimanded pupil back through a waiting room where 
other pupils may be gathered. Each teacher should have 
access to a consultation room near to his regular recitation 
room. Study-halls, libraries, laboratories, gymnasiums, 
swimming pools, teachers' rest rooms, model housekeeping 
rooms, hospital wards, dressing rooms, music rooms, m!u- 
seums and art galleries should be provided of suitable size 
and convenience. Classes should be so arranged as to re- 
duce to a minimum the climbing of stairs by girls, especially 



i88 the; junior high school 

the older girls. The rooms should be provided with all 
accessories of teaching. 

7. Accessories of teaching. The accessories of teach- 
ing should be provided liberally, but not lavishly. Each 
room should be provided with a good teacher's desk with 
several drawers, an office chair for the teacher and at least 
three chairs for visitors, a good blackboard of at least eighty 
linear feet of slate or hyloplate, black, green, or brown. The 
lighting should be arranged scientifically. Movable desks 
should be provided in sufficient number for the largest class, 
each desk equipped with a drawer for books, either adjust- 
able to size of pupil or several sizes provided for each room. 
Books, paper, pencils, pens, and ink in sufficient quantities 
and of satisfactory quality should be supplied. 

There should be special rooms adapted to the particular 
subject taught. The English room should be equipped with 
shelves and cases for books and with racks for the filing of 
student's compositions. The commercial room should be 
provided with counters, banking cribs, typewriters, book- 
keeping desks and adding machines. The geography and 
history room must have maps, globes, charts, and cases for 
geological specimens, papers, ethnologic material, and histor- 
ical relics. The gymnasium will be well supplied with dumb- 
bells, Indian clubs, trapezes, exercisers, wrestling mats, box- 
ing gloves, and other necessary apparatus. 

The library should be well supplied with carefully selected 
books, magazines, pamphlets and newspapers. Either each 
junior high school should have a librarian or there should be 
a school librarian whose sole business it is to buy books for 
the several junior high schools. It is better to provide a 
number of copies of one excellent reference book than a 
variety of indifferently good books. Before purchasing a 
book the librarian should be sure that the teacher and pupils 



AN IDEAL JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 189 

will use it. Teachers are only too prone to request books 
that they know little about and that they will not find avail- 
able for their use after purchased. It might be desirable to 
insist upon each teacher's showing how he is going to use a 
book requested before buying it. The library should be 
accessible to all pupils of the school as soon as they learn 
how to use library books. The budget should provide at 
least $500 per year for each junior high school library. 

The laboratories should be furnished and equipped with 
great care. There should be tables for the pupil's use, pro- 
vided with drawers, a proper composition top, and individual 
laboratory instruments. Of course gas must be piped to the 
tables, and bunsen burners provided. Science supplies in 
reasonable quantities may be doled out from a central store- 
room, or kept on hand in the locked cases of the teacher. A 
lath-house for the propagation of plants is an indispensable 
accessory to the teaching of elementary agriculture. The 
acre- farm is, however, the best laboratory for the teaching of 
the elements of farming. For it water for irrigating must be 
piped to the land, fertilizer must be purchased in sufficient 
amounts, and farm implements of various kinds for actual 
use and for demonstration need to be bought or rented. 

8. The faculty. The principal should be a man of con- 
siderable experience, a lover of youth in all its manifesta- 
tions, and an educator of large vision and executive ability. 
He must be able to grasp large principles and translate them 
into the details of everyday school life. He must see whither 
the plan leads and the way whereby the end is to be reached. 
He must not have his eyes so riveted on the goal that he 
does not see the crooks and turns of the road; nor must he 
fix his gaze so intently upon the road that he forgets the 
glorious result to be accomplished. But he must see all, feel 
all, know all. 



I90 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

The teachers are of varied personality, but all must love 
and appreciate children. They should not be so far from 
adolescence that they have forgotten their own personal ex- 
periences, nor be so close to it that they have no perspective 
and cannot see that adulthood will inevitably follow normal 
development. They must be teachers of children; and, not 
neglecting the subject-matter and the problems, they will 
yet devote every effort to educating the pupils. Physical, 
mental and moral strength is the thing to be aimed at; the 
means are study, work, habits, knowledge, exercise, play, 
good will, interest, attention, concentration, English, history 
and the whole category of subjects. The teachers must 
know themselves how to work and be able to teach their 
pupils how to work. They must be physical, mental and 
moral examplars, and full of the milk of human kindness. 

The principal and teachers compose the faculty of the 
school. As they work hand-in-glove with perfect correlation 
toward the big goal of education, so will the school succeed. 
The faculty is unquestionably the most important of all the 
conditions of an ideal junior high school. Lacking an ideal 
faculty, the school falls short, the result is mediocre, the 
boys and girls fail of high attainment, society is not ad- 
vanced. Lacking ideal conditions in all the other points we 
have considered, but having an ideal faculty, there is still 
much hope. An heroic group of teachers captained by a 
capable principal may win the battle with all other conditions 
falling far short of the ideal. 

There must be a sufficient number of teachers to carry 
on a program such as we have described in Chapter Nine. A 
teacher should not be expected to teach more than six 
periods, or make more than three preparations per day. The 
principal should not be expected to teach at all, but he may 
elect to teach not more than two periods per day. Clerical 



AN IDEJAL JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL I9I 

assistance must be furnished; a good janitor provided — one 
who understands his plant, its perfect operation ; a libra- 
rian or the equivalent employed; and proper supervisors 
assigned, who will actually assist, not hinder, the teachers in 
getting the best results. 

9. Conclusion: results. With ideal but perfectly 
realizable conditions, the junior high school — which will 
probably be the high school of the future — should accom- 
plish very definite results, results that are the aim and pur- 
pose of the institution. Let us summarize these results in 
concluding this discussion of early adolescent education. 

(a) The junior high school operates to prevent boys and 
girls from dropping out of school. This is a result of great 
value to the individual that is held in school, but is also 
of great economic, civic, cultural, and social value to the 
community. 

(b) By means of the junior high school pupils' aptitudes 
and talents will be discovered and the pupils will be guided 
to take proper courses in school that will prepare them for 
the vocation for which they are best fitted. This should 
make it possible for a young man to enter his life career at 
once upon graduating from school. He will be spared the 
waste of time and the bitter experience now required in look- 
ing for a position. The employers, too, will be benefited in 
that they will be able to secure the very best boys for their 
employment without the waste of trying out and dismissing 
several persons before the right one is secured. The world 
will be happier and more efficient because everyone will be 
working at the job he likes best and can do best. 

(c) Pupils will be saved at least one year of time in 
securing their education. This will not only be an economic 
gain to the individual, but will be a social gain in that men 
will have at least one year longer in which they will be com- 



192 the: junior high school 

munity supporting. Take a community that is being sup- 
ported by 1,000 men workers, whose average length of time 
in which they contribute to the support of others — family, 
relatives, the poor, churches, other social agencies — is 
twenty years. Those 1,000 men will hereafter have twenty- 
one years in which to earn what they now have to earn in 
twenty years. If applied in days' work per year, it would 
result as follows : Supposing that the average man works 
300 days per year at present, hereafter he would have to 
work only 285. Counting out the 52 Sundays, it would give 
each man a twenty-eight-day vacation instead of a thirteen- 
day vacation. Or, if the men continued to work the same 
number of days as before, 'the community could be sup- 
ported on a higher plane than at present. 

(d) Pupils are given the right kind of education — train- 
ing that is adapted to the period of adolescence. We may 
look for the results of this right kind of education in im- 
proved health, physique, mentality and morality. While this 
effect will be immediate and easily perceptible, the effect 
will be cumulative and eternal. The future generations born 
of physically and mentally fit parents will rise quite per- 
ceptibly above our own generation. We may look for heredi- 
tary as well as immediate benefits. 

Civic, altruistic, vocational, religious, cultural, scientific, 
sense education at this plastic and evolutionary period can 
but result in better government, in social improvement, in 
economic efficiency, in deeper religion, in greater happiness, 
in further advancement in inventions, comforts, disease-pre- 
vention, and in bodily development. 

All of these results are to be brought about not by the 
junior high school single-handed. There is at present a 
general progressive movement in education of which early 
adolescent training forms a vital and central part. Occupa- 



AN IDEAL JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 193 

tional training, vocational guidance, the junior college, 
teaching how to study and work, elimination of non-essen- 
tials, extension of kindergarten methods into the grades, 
sense education, new ideas of buildings, better administra- 
tive management of schools — all these are playing their 
parts along with the junior high school. 

In treating the theme of this book, we have tried to give 
due credit to those other movements and show how they are 
related to early adolescent education. Educators are pretty 
well agreed, however, that the success of the whole scheme 
cannot be fully realized without careful attention to the 
period of adolescence, the best device being an institution 
organized on the plan described in the foregoing pages under 
the name of the junior high school. 






, 



APPENDIX 

JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL COURSES OF STUDY 

LOS ANGELES 

A. General Course. 

First Year of Course. 

Required Subjects. 

English 5 

Arithmetic 5 

History (% yr.) 2% 

Geography (i/ 2 yr.) 2% 

Physical Training I 

Music 2 

Drawing 2 

Penmanship 2 

Man. Tr. or Dom. Science .4 

One elective 5 

French 5 

German 5 

Spanish 5 

Latin 5 

Bookkeeping 5 

Stenography 5 

Total .31 

Second Year of Course. 
Required Subjects. 

English 5 

History-Civics 5 

Physical Training 2 

Oral English (% yr.) 1 

Music ( y 2 yr.) 1 

195 






I96 THE) JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

Phys. and Hygiene 2 

Man. Tr. or Dom. Science 4 

Two electives 10 

Same as 1st yr 5 

Algebra 5 

Drawing 5 

Total 30 

Third Year of Course. 

Required Subjects. 

English 5 

Physical Training 2 

Music or Oral English 2 

Three electives 15 

Same as 2d yr 5 

Com'l Arithmetic 5 

Ancient History 5 

General Science 5 

One other elective 5 

Cooking 5 

Sewing 5 

Woodwork 5 

Drawing 5 

Total 29 

B. Commercial Course. 

First Year of Course. 

Differs from General Course in that Book- 
keeping — 5, and Stenography — 5, are required 
and take the place of Music — 2, Drawing — 2, 
and Manual Training — 4. 



APPENDIX 197 

Second Year of Course. 

Differs from General Course in that Book- 
keeping — 5, Stenography — 5, and Penmanship 
— 2, are required and take place of Manual 
Training — 4, Music — 1, Oral English — I, and 
one elective — 5. 

Third Year of Course. 
Required Subjects. 

English 5 

Commercial Arithmetic 5 

Bookkeeping 5 

Stenography 5 

Physical Training ..2 

Two electives 10 

Same list as General 

Total 32 

C. Vocational Course. 

Very similar to General Course, except that in 
the second and third years ten hours of woodwork 
or cooking-sewing are required. 

CINCINNATI 

A. Industrial Arts Course. 

Seventh Year Hours 

Physical Training and Hygiene 5 

English 3 

History and Civics 3 

Music 1 

Shopwork and Mech. Drawing 10 

General Science 3 



I98 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOI* 

Mathematics 4 

Freehand Drawing. 1 

Total 30 

Eighth Year. 

Physical Training and Hygiene 5 

English 3 

History and Civics 3 

Music 1 

Shopwork and Mech. Dr 10 

General Science 3 

Mathematics 4 

Freehand Drawing I 

Total 30 

Ninth Year. 

Physical Training and Hygiene 5 

English 3 

History and Civics 2 

Music 1 

Physics ,. .. 3 

Algebra 3 

Economics and Ind. Relations 2 

Freehand Drawing I 

Shopwork and Draughting 10 

Total 30 

B. Commercial Course. 
Seventh Year. 

Physical Training and Hygiene 5 

English 3 

Civics I 



APPENDIX 199 

Music 1 

History of Commerce and Industry. . 4 

Geography 3 

Mathematics 5 

Printing and Bookbinding 2 

Drawing 2 

Penmanship, Corresp. Prac 2 

Salesmanship 2 

Total 30 

Eighth Year. 

Physical Training and Hygiene 5 

English 3 

Civics I 

Music 1 

United States History 2 

Biography of Great Americans 1 

Lib. Read, in Mod. Commerce 1 

U. S. Geography 3 

Mathematics 5 

Engraving and Allied Arts 2 

Artistic Lettering 2 

Advertising 2 

Pen. Carres. Practice 2 

Total ' 30 

Ninth Year. 

Physical Training and Hygiene 5 

English 3 

Music I 

Art Appreciation 1 



200 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

Economic Geography of U. S. 3 

Commercial Vocations 3 

Office Methods 1 

Bookkeeping and Penmanship 10 

Business Forms 1 

Elementary Economics 2 

Total 30 

HOUSTON 

A. General Course. 

First Year. 

Required : Regular seventh grade subjects. 
Elective : Latin, German, Spanish or Algebra. 

Second Year. 

Required : English. 

Elective: Three of the following, depending 
upon college requirements, etc.: Ancient 
History, Algebra, Latin, Spanish, German, 
Physiography, Physiology and Hygienics, 
Manual Training, Domestic Science, Com. 
English. 

Third Year. 

Required : English. 

Elective: Three of the following, depending 
upon college entrance requirements, voca- 
tional needs, etc.: Med. and Modern His- 
tory, Algebra, Latin, Spanish, German, 
Biology, Typewriting and Shorthand, Man- 
ual Training, Domestic Science. 



APPENDIX 20I 

B. Commercial Course. 
First Year. 

Same as in General Course. 
Second Year. 

Required: English, Com. Eng., a Language. 
Two electives: Algebra, Science, History, 
Man. Training, Domestic Science. 
Third Year. 

Required : English, a foreign language, Sten- 
ography and Typewriting. 
One elective: Algebra, Science, History, Man- 
ual Training, Domestic Science. 

DETROIT 

A. English Course. 

First Year. 

English 5 

Literature 5 

Mathematics 5 

History 5 

Physical Education 2 

Music 2 

Drawing 2 

Man. Tr. or Dom. Sci. and Dom. Art 4 

Second Year. 

English 5 

Literature 5 

Mathematics 5 

History 8-B and Gen. Geog. 8-A 5 

Physical Education 2 

Music 2 

Drawing 2 

Man. Tr. or Dom. Sci. and Dom. Art 4 



202 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOT, 

Third Year. 

English 5 

Literature 5 

Mathematics 5 

Man. Tr. or Dom. Sci. and Dom. Art 4 

Physical Education 2 

Elect One: 

Ancient History 5 

Physiography 5 

Drawing 5 

Music 2 — 7 

B. Commercial Course. 

First Year. 

English 5 

Literature 5 

History 5 

Mathematics 5 

Physical Education 2 

Music 2 

Drawing 2 

Man. Tr. or Dom. Sci. and Art 4 

Second Year. 

English 5 

History 8-B and Gen. Geog. 8-A 5 

Bookkeeping 5 

Physical Education 2 

Music 2 

Typewriting 5 

Gom'l Arithmetic 3 

Pen. and Spelling 2 — 5 

Elect One: 

Literature 5 

Man. Tr. or Dom. Sci. and Dom. Art 4 



APPENDIX 203 

Third Year. 

English 5 

Bookkeeping 10 

Typewriting 5 

Physical Education 2 

Elect Two: 

Literature 5 

Shorthand 5 

Algebra 5 

Man. Tr. or Dom. Sci. and Art. . . 4 
C. Industrial Course. 

First Year. 

English 5 

Mathematics 5 

History 5 

Man. Tr. or Household Arts 10 

Drawing 5 

Physical Education 2 

Music 5 

Second Year. 

English 5 

Mathematics 5 

History 8-B and Gen. Geog. 8-A 5 

Man. Tr. or Household Arts 10 

Drawing 5 

Music 2 

Physical Education 2 

Third Year. 

English 5 

Mathematics 5 

Man. Tr. or Household Arts 10 

Drawing 5 

Physical Education 2 



204 TH £ JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOI, 

Elect One : 

Literature 5 

Physiography 5 

POMONA 

Intermediate School Course. 

Opportunity Semester (for those whose grades in the 
sixth grade have been mediocre). 
Five of the following, as needed: 

Arithmetic 

Art 

English 

Drawing 

History and Geography 

Home Credit Work 

Manual Training 

Orchestral Music 

Sewing 

Typing 

Vocal Music 
First Year— 8B. 

1. English 

2. Latin Beginnings or Spanish Beginnings 

3. U. S. History and Civics 

4. 5. Two electives from 

Algebra I (1) 

Elem. Bookkeeping I (1) 

General Science I (1) 

(Includes Dom. Science I) 

First Year— 8A. 

1. English 

2. Latin I (1) or Spanish I (1) or Draw- 

ing I (1) 



APPENDIX 205 

3, 4, 5. Three electives from 
Algebra II (1) 
Bookkeeping II (1) 
General Science II (1) 

(Includes Dom. Science II) 
Ancient History I ( 1 ) 

Second Year — 9B. 

1. English I (1) 

2. Latin II (1) 

Drawing II (1), or Spanish II (1) 

3. 4, 5. Three electives from 

Algebra III (1) 
Bookkeeping III (1) 
General Science III (1) 
Domestic Science III (1) 
Ancient History II ( 1 ) 

Second Year — 9A. 

1. English II ( 1) 

2. Latin III (1) 
Drawing III (1) 
Spanish III (1) 

3. 4, 5. Three electives from 

Geometry I (1) 
Bookkeeping IV (1) 
Dom. Science IV (1) 
Agriculture I ( 1 ) 
Manual Training I (1) 
Music I (1) 
Algebra I (1) 
Ancient History III (1) 
General Science I (1) 



206 the: junior high school 

Third Year— 10B. 

1. English III (i) 

2. Latin IV (i%) 
Spanish IV (i%) 
Mechanical Drawing I (i%) 
Art I(i%) 

3, 4, 5. Three electives from 
Geometry II (1) 
Bookkeeping V ( 1 ) 
Domestic Art V (1) 
Agriculture II (1) 
Manual Training II (1) 
Music II (1) 
Algebra II ( 1 ) 
Modern History IV (1%) 
General Science II (1) 

Third Year— 10A. 

1. Vocational Guidance 

2. Latin V (i%) 
Spanish V (1%) 
Mechanical Dr. II (1%) 
Art I (1%) 

3. 4, 5. Three electives from 

Geometry III (1) 
Bookkeeping VI (1) 
Domestic Art VI (1) 
Agriculture III (1) 
Manual Training III (1) 
Music III (1) 
Algebra III ( 1) 
Modern History V (1%) 
General Science III (1) 



APPENDIX 207 

Explanation — Numerals in parenthesis refer to the num- 
ber of high school credits at which each semester's work is 
valued. Forty-five credits are required for entrance to our 
junior college or to the University of California and simi- 
lar institutions. Twenty-four credits may be earned in the 
California intermediate school courses of our junior high 
schools. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Bibliographies: 

Abelson, J. Bibliography of the junior high school. 

Education, vol. 37, pp. 122-129, October, 1916. 
Judd, C. H. Recent articles and books on the junior high 

School. ELEMENTARY SCHOOL JOURNAL, vol. 1 7, pp. 

674-684, May, 1 91 7. 
References in Books : 

AYERS, L. P. Laggards in our schools. Charities Pub- 
lishing Co., New York, 1909. 

CubberlEy, E. P. School organization and administra- 
tion. World Book Co., Yonkers, 1917. 

Cyclopedia op Education, P. Monroe, editor. The Mac- 
millan Co., New York. Vol. 3, pp. 68-93. Educa- 
tion in Germany, Ziertmann. Vol. 2, pp. 656-675. 
Education in France, Compayre. 

Hall, G. Stanley. Adolescence. 2 vols. D. Appleton 
& Co., New York. 

Hall-Quest, Alfred L. Supervised study. The Mac- 
miillan Co., New York, 1916. Especially the Appendix. 

Inglis, Alexander. Principles of secondary education. 
Houghton-Mifflin Co., Boston, 1918. 

Judd, Chas. H. The psychology of high school subjects. 
Ginn & Co., Boston, 1905. 

Parker, S. C. Teaching high school subjects. Ginn & 
Co., Boston, 191 5. 

Snedden, David. Problems of secondary education. 
Houghton-Mifflin Co., Boston, 191 7. 

Strayer, Geo. D. Some problems in city school admin- 
istration. World Book Co., Yonkers, 1918. 

Taylor, Joseph S. A handbook of vocational education. 
The Macmillan Co., New York, 1914. 
208 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 2CK) 

U. S. Bureau of Education. 

Report of the Commissioner of Education, 19 12. Vol 1, 
p. 152-6. Good list of junior high schools in 1912. 

Report of the Commissioner, 1914. Vol. 1. Briggs, T. 
H. Secondary education. P. 127-157. 

Report of the Commissioner, 191 5. Vol 1. DaFFEN- 
baugh, W. S. Reorganization. P. 6064. 

Same. Van Sickle, Jas. H. Readjustments in grades 
above the sixth. P. 30-3. 

Report of the Commissioner, 1916. Vol. 1. Briggs, T. 
H. Reorganization of secondary education, etc. P. 
114-118. 

Bulletin No. 4, 1907. Thorndike, E. L- Elimination of 
pupils from the schools. 

Bulletin No. 5, 191 1. Age and grade census of schools and 
colleges in U. S. 

Bulletin No. 38, 1913. Baker, Jas. H. Report of Com- 
mittee of Council of Education, N. E. A., on Econ- 
omy of time in education. 

Bulletin No. 41, 1913. Report of the Commission of the 
N. E. A. on the reorganization of secondary educa- 
tion. 

Bulletin No. 10, 1914. Physical growth and school 
progress. 

Bulletin No. 8, 1916. Bunker, Frank F. Reorganiza- 
tion of the public school system. 

Bulletin No. 28, 1916. Report of a committee of the N. 
E. A. on the social studies in secondary education. 

Bulletin No. 2, 191 7. Report on reorganization of English. 

Bulletin No. 49, 19 17. Report of a committee of the N. 
E. A. on music in secondary schools. 



2IO THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

National Education Association Proceedings. 

Los Angeles, Calif., meeting, 1907. 

Morrison, G. B., et al. Report of committee on an equal 
division of the twelve years. P. 705-10. 
Cleveland, Ohio, meeting, 1908. 

LyttlS, E. W., et al. Report of the committee on six- 
year course of study. P. 625-628. 
Denver, Colo., meeting, 1909. 

Morrison, G. B., et al. Third report of committee on six- 
year course of study. P. 498-503. 
Salt Lake City, Utah, meeting, 191 3. 
Judd, C. H. A seven-year elementary school. P. 225-34. 
Wilson, H. B., et al. Report of the committee on econ- 
omy of time in elementary and secondary education. 
P. 217-225. 
Oakland, Calif., meeting, 191 5. 

ClaxTon, P. P. Organisation of high schools into junior 

and senior sections. P. 747-'8. 
Wilson, H. B., et al. Report of the committee on econ- 
omy of time. P. 402-410. 
New York City, meeting (also Detroit), 1916. 

Bradford, Mary. Changes in the curriculum upper 

grades. P. 407-'n. 
Johnston, C. H. The junior high school. P. 145-152. 
Judd-Plars£ debate: The best organisation for Ameri- 
can schools is the 6-6 plan. P. 9i7~'34. 
Judd, C. H. Affirmative of the 6-6 question. P. 9i7-'25- 
Pearse, Carroll G. Negative of the 6-6 question. P. 

9 2 5-'34- 
Sneddon, David. Minimum essentials vs. differentiated 
course of study in seventh and eighth grades.. P. 
965-76. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 211 

Same. Peculiar psychological conditions and social needs 
of the seventh and eighth grades. P. 398-403. 

Weet, H. S. First step in establishing the 6-3-3 organ- 
isation. P. io36-'42. 
Portland, Oregon, meeting, 191 7. 

Barker, A. C. The intermediate school or junior high 
school. P. 266-yi. 

Bailey, Laura C. Library opportunities in the junior 
high school. P. 576-'8i. 

Deamer, Arthur. General or elementary science in the 
junior high schools. P. $42-'$. 

Kirkpatrick, Chas. Vocational content of the interme- 
diate high school course. P. 535- T 8. 

Peirson, Mabel B. Biology in the intermediate school. 

P. 538-41. 
Periodicals : 

AMERICAN EDUCATION. 

Cox, Philip W. L. Junior high school; its purposes and 
how they may be realized. Vol. 19 : 337-43. Febru- 
ary, 191 6. Solvay junior high school. Vol. 20: 80-86. 
October, 19 16. 

AMERICAN SCHOOL BOARD JOURNAL. 

Reinoehl, F. W. Some fundamentals of the junior high 

school problem. Vol. 53 : 19-20. September, 1916. 
Scofteld, F. A. Junior high school at McMinnville, 

Oregon. Vol. 50: 11-13, 65. March, 1915. 
Stacy, C. R. Tentative standards for junior high school 

administration. Vol. 55 : 19-20. August, 1917. 
Whitney, F. L. Junior high school idea in the small 

town. Vol. 48: 11-12. March, 1914. 

AMERICAN TEACHER. 

Hartwell, Chas. S. Junior high school for increased 
economy and efficiency. Vol. 5 : 37-39. March, 1916 



212 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

ANNALS OF AMERICAN ACADEMY OF POLITICS AND POLITICAL 
SCIENCE. 

Bonser, Fred G. Junior high school and vocational edu- 
cation. Vol. 67: 171-72. September, 1916. 
Education. 

AbElson, Joseph. Bibliography of the junior high school. 
Vol. 37: 122-9. IQI 6- 

Study of the junior high school project. Vol. 37: 
1-19. October, 1916. 

Peters, Chas. C. What the grammar school has a right 
to expect of the higher schools. Vol. 36: 415-24. 
March, 191 6. 

Briggs, T. H. Possibilities of the junior high school. 
Vol. 37: 279-89. January, 191 7. 

Foster, J. M. Junior high school in villages. Vol. 37: 
495-503- April, 1917. 

Lull, H. The six-year high school. Vol. 30, p. 75-24. 
September, 1909. 
Educational administration and supervision. 

Bonser, F. G. Democratizing secondary education by 
the 6-3-3 plan. Vol. 1 : 567-76. November, 191 5. 

Johnston, Chas. Hughes. Junior high school adminis- 
tration. Vol. 2: 71-86. February, 1916. 
Movement toward the reorganization of secondary 
education. Vol. 1 : 165-72. March, 1915. 

Cox, P. W. L. Discussion of Mr. Cheesman A. Herrick's 
criticism of the junior high school. Vol. 3 : 23-29. 
January, 191 7. 

Giles, J. T. Effect on first six grades of junior-senior 
high school organization. Vol. 3 : 269-74. May, 191 7. 

Newlon, J. H. Need of a scientific curriculum policy for 
junior and senior high schools. Vo. 3 : 253-68. May, 
1917. 






BIBLIOGRAPHY 21$ 

Stacy, C. R. Junior high school movement in Massachu- 
setts. Vol. 3 : 343-50- July, 1917- 

Study, H. P. Preliminary steps in organizing a junior 
high school. Vol. 3 : 339-42. July, 1917. 

EDUCATIONAL BI-MONTHLY. 

Hosic, James Fleming. Junior high school. Vol. 10: 
175-81. December, 1915. 

EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE. 

Stacy, C. R. Bridgewater normal school and the inter- 
mediate school movement. Vol. 1 : 1-5. March, 1916. 

EDUCATIONAL REVIEW. 

Davis, C. O. Reorganization of Sec. Ed. Vol. 42 1270-301. 

Snavely, Guy E. Junior high school and college. Vol. 
51 140-9. June, 1916. 

FlEaglE, F. R. Trade instruction, Vol. 52 : 456-63. De- 
cember, 1916. 

Smith, C. E. Mathematics in the junior high school. 
Vol. 53 : 39 J -96. April, 1917. 

EDUCATIONAL-JOURNAL. 

Inglis, A. J. Junior high school 3 : 55-58. April, 1917. 

Junior high school. 17: 292-4. January, 1917. 

Junior high school at Hudson, Ohio. 17: 466-7. 

March, 191 7. 

Junior high school in the Bast. 18 : 2-3. September, 

1917. 

Junior high school in the West. 18: 3-6. September, 

1917. 
Mangun, V. L. 6-6 plan at Macomb, Illinois. Vol. 18, 

pp. 598-617. April, 1818. 

One motive for organizing the junior high school. 

17: 379-80. February, 1917. 



214 TH] £ JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL JOURNAL. 

Junior high school movement. Vol. 15: 1 14-18. Novem- 
ber, 1 9 14. 
Horn, P. W. Junior high school in Houston, Texas. 

Vol. 16: 91-5. October, 1915. 
Llewellyn, E. J. 6-3-3 plan at Mount Vernon, Ind. Vol. 

16: 508-10. May, 1916. 

Junior high school in Lewiston, Idaho. Vol. 16: 454- 

6. May, 1916. 
Tryon, R. M. History in the junior high school. Vol. 

16:491-507. May, 1916. 
Educator journal. 
Helm, M. P. Junior high school. Vol. 17: 353-57. 

March, 191 7. 
Hines, H. C. Present status of the junior high school. 

Vol. 17: 462-65. May, 19 1 7. 

GENERAL SCIENCE QUARTERLY. 

Carpenter, H. A. General science in the junior high 
school at Rochester. 1 : 46-53. November, 1916. 

HARVARD TEACHERS' ASS'n. LEAFLET. 

Inglis, A. J. Junior high school. L. 2: 1-9. October, 
* 1916. 

JOURNAL OF EDUCATION. 

Chapman, I. T. Obstacles to be encountered in estab- 
lishment of junior high school. Vol. 83 : 537-41. May, 
18, 1916. 

Griffin, O. B. Junior high school. 84: 399-402. Oc- 
tober, 1916. 

Harris, James H. Six-and-six plan. Vol. 81 : 89-91, 
102-103. January 28, 191 5. 

Junior high school. Vol. 82: 342-47, 352-53. Oc- 
tober 14, 191 5. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 21 5 

Inglis, A. J. Junior high school. 84: 595-7. December 

14, 1916. 
Johnston, C. H. Junior high school. ¥01.84:91. July, 

27, 1916. 

Rochester and junior high schools. Vol. 83 : 377. 

April, 6, 1916. 
Scofteld, F. A. Functions of the intermediate school. 

Vol. 79' 429-3L 
Westcott, R. W. Outside activities of junior high 

school pupils. 85:91-93,104. January 25, 1917. 
Winship, A. E. Junior high school. Vol. 83 : 91-2. Jan- 
uary 25, 19 16. 

JOURNAL OF GEOGRAPHY. 

Kirchwey, C. B. Geography in the junior high school. 
Vol. 14: 291-4. April 16, 1916. 

KENTUCKY HIGH SCHOOL QUARTERLY. 

Baker, George Marshall. "Six-six." Vol. 1 : 5-32. 

July, 191 5. 
Jones, O. J. Junior high school. 3: 23-55. July, 1917. 
Lyon, M. E. Junior high school movement. 3 : 24-27. 

January, 191 7. 
manual training. 
Advantages of the junior high school. Vol. 17: 640-1. 

April, 1916. 

MATHEMATICS TEACHER. 

Gentleman, F. W. Content of a mathematical course 
for the junior high school. 9: 209-18. June, 1917. 

MIDLAND SCHOOLS. 

Bingaman, C. C. Junior-senior high school in practice. 

Vol. 30: 178-80. February, 1916. 
Lewis, E. E. Debate on the six-six plan. Vol. 30: 139- 

40. January, 191 6. 



2l6 THE; JUNIOR HIGM SCHOOL 

OHIO EDUCATIONAL MONTHLY. 

Junior H. S. Vol. 65 : 390-97. August, 191 6. 
Grady, G. O. Junior high school. 66: 393-397. Sep- 
tember, 191 7. 

OHIO TEACHER. 

Kinkead, R. G. Columbus idea of the six and six flan. 
Vol. 35 : 248-9. 

OREGON TEACHERS' MONTHLY. 

Rutherford, W. R. Junior high school. 21 : 149- 151. 

November, 1916. 
pedagogical seminary. 
Douglass, Aubrey Augustus. Present status of the 

junior high school. Vol. 22: 252-74. June, 1915. 
Lawson, Mary F. Socialization of language study in 

the junior high school. Vol. 23 : 76-85. March, 1916. 

SCHOOL AND HOME EDUCATION. 

Bagley, W. C. Six-six plan. Vol. 34: 3-5. Septem- 
ber, 1 914. 

Prof. Judd's criticism of the eight year elementary 
curriculum. Vol. 34: 212-16. February, 1915. 
Six-six plan and early differentiation. Vol. 34:239- 
41. March, 1915. 

Brown, G. A. Junior high school. Vol. 36: 6-8. Sep- 
tember, 1 91 6. 

Hollister, H. A. Junior high school. Vol. 35: 117-20. 
December, 191 5. 
school review. 

Inglis, Alexander. A fundamental problem in the re- 
organization of the high school. Vol. 23: 308-18. 
May, 1915. 

Judd, Charles H. Junior high school. Vol. 2,y. 25-33. 
January, 191 5. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 21/ 

Junior high school. Vol. 23: 492-4. September, 1915. 
Junior high school. Vol. 24: 249-60. April, 1916. 

Davis, C. O. Junior high schools in North Central Asso- 
ciation territory, 1917-18. Vol. 26: 324-336. May, 
1918. 

McCartney, L. Junior high school. Vol. 25 :652-8. No- 
vember, 1917. 

Robinson, F. V. Reorganization of the grades and high 
school. Vol. 20: 665-88. December, 1912. 

Stetson, Paul C. Statistical study of scholastic records 
of junior high school students. Vol. 25 1617-36. 
November, 1917. 

Stetson, Paul C. Statistical study of enrollment in 
Junior high school. 26 : 233-45. 

Bagley and Judd. Enlarging the American elementary 
school. Vol. 26: 313-323. May, 1918. 

Weet, H. S. Junior high school (Rochester, N. Y.). 
Vol. 24:142-51. February, 1916. 

SCHOOL AND SOCIETY. 

Junior high school in New York. Vol. 5 : 344. March 
24, 1917. Same, 5: 591. May 19, 1917. 

Hamilton, W. I. Attempt to define junior high school. 
5 : 589. May 19, 1917. 

Lodge, G. Latin in the junior high school. , Vol. I': 300- 
4. February 2y, 191 5. 

SIERRA EDUCATION NEWS. 

Bennett, G. V. Intermediate school. Vol. 12 : 592-594. 
November, 191 6. 
teachers' journal. 

Nutt, Hubert W. Reorganization of the period of ele- 
mentary and secondary education. Vol. 15: 113-118; 
152-57. September-October, 191 5. 



2 i8 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

Craig, R. C. Woodzvork for the junior high school. Vol. 
16: 632-5. June, 1915. 

/r. H. S. at Trenton, N. J. 18 : 304. March, 1917. 
EsaviTT, F. M. Six-three-three plan. Vol. 16, p. 240-242. 
Miscellaneous Reports. 
California State Commissioner of Secondary Education. 

Reports 1914, 191 5, 1916. 
Detroit, Michigan. Handbook of the Detroit junior high 

schools. Board of Education, 1916-7. 
Goldfield, Iowa. Bingaman, C. C. Report of superin- 
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Houston, Texas. Annual report of the public schools. 

Board of Education, 1916-17. 
Illinois State Teachers' Association, 191 5. 

Johnston, C. H. Junior high school administration. P. 
116-23. 
Illinois University, High School Conference, 1916, bul- 
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Barton, H. J. Latin in the junior high school. P. 53. 
Hol,ust£r, H. A. Junior high school administration. P. 
32-42. 
Iowa, University of, Extension division bulletin No. 25 
(first series, No. 6), 1916. L^wis, E. E. Standards 
of measuring junior high schools. 
Kentucky Educational Association (Louisville), 191 5. 
Gatton, Harper. Six-six plan. P. 196-99. 
Houston, T. A. Six-six plan. P. 102-6. 
Los Angeles (Calif.). Annual report superintendent of 
schools, 1914. 
Report of the advisory committee to Board of Education, 
1916. P. 88-103. 
Michigan, University of. Bulletin N. S. Vol 17. No. 
9-'i5- 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 219 

Davis, Calvin O. Subject matter and administration of 
the 6-3-3 pl an °f secondary schools. 
Middlebury (Vermont) College Bulletin. Vol. n, No. i, 
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Howard, E. E. Junior high school. 
Minnesota, Department of Education. Bulletin 59, 1916. 

Phiujps and Barnes. Junior high school problem. 
Mississippi Teachers' Association. Laurel, Miss., 191 5. 
Claxton, P. P. (Report of Dr. Claxton's address on 
the 6-6 plan). P. 37-39. 
Missouri, state superintendent, public schools. Sixty- 
sixth report of public schools of Missouri for year 
1915-16. 
Missouri State Normal School (Springfield) Bulletin. 
Vol. 10, p. 21-48. October, 1915. 
Hill, Clyde M. Junior high school movement. 
New Hampshire, department of public instruction, division 
of secondary schools, 191 6. Junior high school 
organization. 
New York City, High School Teachers' Association of, 
bulletin 59. January, 191 6. 
Abelson, Joseph. Bibliography of the junior high school. 

P. 16-28. 
Hart WEED, C. S. Junior high school in New York City. 
P. 14-16. 
New York State University Convocation. Proceedings of 
the convocation, October 19-20, 1916. 
Briggs, T. H. Possibilities of the junior high school. 
P. 92-103. 
North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary 
Schools (Chicago), 1914. 
Brown, H. E. Suggested plan for the re-organization 
of the American high school. P. 17-30. 



220 THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

Proceedings of 1916. The junior high school, the senior 

high school, and the junior college. P. 40-50; 174-92. 
Ohio State Teachers* Association. Proceedings, August, 

19 1 6. 
Hawkins, Wilson. The six-six plan. P. 355-75. 
Pomona (California) Schools Bulletin, No. 8, Junior 

high school — 1917. 
Society for the Study of Education, National, fifteenth 

yearbook, 1916, part III. Public School Pub. Co., 

Bloomington, 111. 
Douglass, A. A. The junior high school. 
Society for the Promotion of Industrial Education, Nation- 
al, tenth annual meeting, bulletin 24. 
Brogan, W. S. Prevocational schools vs. continuation 

schools and the junior high school. P. 174. 
Wetzel, W. A. Junior high school and prevocational 

education. P. 188- 191. 
Southern Education Association (Nashville, Tenn.), 1913. 
FertiG, J. W. Is not a six-year elementary course pref- 
erable? P. 52-64. Discussion p. 65-73. 
Vocational Education Association of Middle West, second 

annual convention. 
Wiles, E. P. Junior high school. Voc. Ed. Assn. of 

Middle West. Second Ann. Conv. P. 126-129. 
Stetson, P. C. Curriculum of junior high school. P. 

I30-I35- 
Glass, J. M. Results of first year's work at Washington 

junior high school. Rochester, N. Y. P. 105-124. 
Hill, C. M. Junior high school in Vermont. P. 124-135. 
Washington Education Association (Tacoma, Wash.), 

1914. 
Kern, W. M. Junior-senior high school. P. 110-112. 
Tift, S. E. Six-six plan of grading. P. 102-9. 



INDEX 



IND£X 



Page 

Accessories of teaching 188 

Adolescence, 

education, boy 20-23 

education, girl 23-25 

evils 6-7 

problems 192 

Agriculture 106 

Alameda, California 33 

6-2-4 plan 33 

Art Courses 103 

Attendance, 

compulsory 153 

enforced 62-64 

work 156 

Aurora, 111., 8-5 plan 32 

Ayres' statistics 4 

Bagley, W. C 38 

Baltimore 6-3-2 plan 31 

Berkeley, Cal., 

history courses 97 

loss of pupils 3 

plan 33-35 40 

problems in establishing Junior 

High School 45, 46 

Biology 101 

Board of Education 182 

Boston Latin School 31 

Buildings and grounds .... 185, 187 

Bunker, Frank F 30-31 

Berkeley plan 33-35 

Difficulties 46 

Character development. .- 106 

Chicago 6-yr. H. S 31 

Cincinnati, 

curricula 197-200 

leakage 4 

Class advisers 151-2 

Class-rooms, 

accoustics 137 

conveniences 138 

heating 136 

lighting 136 

seating 136 

size 135 

ventilation 135 



Page 

Coffman, L. D., 38 

Colorado Teachers' College .... 120 

Concord, N. H., plan 32 

Cost, additional 54-56 

Courses, 

culture 101-108 

defined 77 

differentiation 1, 38 

election 7*9-80 

enriched 1 

Culture pleasures 145 

Curriculum, 

Cincinnati 197-200 

defined 77 

Detroit 201-204 

Houston 200-201 

Los Angeles 195-197 

Pomona 204 

preliminary considerations 78-79 

Definition Jr. H. S 1 

Demands on nublic schools.... 2 

Denver survey 55 

Departmentalization 12 

Department of Superintendence 37-8 

Detroit 39 

curricula 201-204 

Differentiations of courses....!, 38 

Dramatics 106 

Dropping out of school 191 

Economy of time 17-19, 191 

Elementary grades, 

changes in subject matter. .70-73 
effect of Jr. H. S. upon. . . .58-74 
non-essentials eliminated. . .73-74 
Elementary school teachers, 

attitude toward Jr. H. S. ..48-50 

excellent necessary 66-6S 

English courses 86-89 

old English 92 

Enriched courses of study. ...... 1 

Evansville, leakage 3 

Expense, additional 54-56 

Expression 145 

Faculties, mental 144 



222 



INDEX 



223 



Page 

Faculty, teaching 189-190 

duties of 150-152 

experienced elem. teachers 114-118 

men and women 117-118 

principal 115-116 

Fitchburg, Mass 41 

Foreign languages 90-92 

Foundational subjects 58 

Correct grades I-VI 58-60 

France, adolescent in 28-29 

French 90-91 

Francis, J. H 35-36 

Geography 107 

German 90-91 

Germany, adolescent, ed 26-28 

Grades, 

included in Jr. H. S 1 

methods of grouping 29-33 

Grand Rapids, 

leakage from school .... 3,9,12 

vocational guidance 16 

Habits of industry 141-142 

Hall, Dr. G. Stanley 105 

Health and development 143 

History 96-98, 107 

Horn, P. W 14 

Houston Jr. H. S. , 

buildings 38 

curricula 200-201 

effect on enrollment 14 

vocational guidance 16 

Johnston 38 

Judd, C. H 38 

Junior College, 

and Sr. H. S 168 

courses 170, 172 

Intermediate school 1 

Issaquah, Wash., 6-5 plan.... 32 

Ithaca, N. Y., 6-2-4 plan 32 

Junior High School defined, .... 1 

Kalamazoo 7-3-2 plan 32 

Kindergarten 60-62 

Latin 95, 92 

Leakage from school 3, 4 

prevented 7-14 

Lecture method 148-149 



Page 

Lewiston, Idaho, Jr. H. S 39 

Literature 104 

Location of Jr. H. S 47, 48 

Long Beach buildings 55-56 

Los Angeles, 

establishment Jr. H. S 45 

leakage from school 3, 4 

original plan 33 

present plan 35, 36, 40 

vocational guidance 16 

Macomb, 111 10 

Mangun, V. L 10 

Manual training 84-86, 108 

Mathematics 93-95 

Mexican children 3 

Moore, Dr. E. C 33-35 

Moral problems 7 

Moral training 164-166 

Motor skill 142 

Music 102 

National Ed. Asn. 33-38 

debate 6-6 plan 38 

economy of time 37 

reorganization sec. ed 36-37 

New York City 40 

Ninth grade pupils, 

attitude to Jr. H. S 53, 54 

Number of Jr. H. S. in U. S. . . 39, 40 

Pearse, Carroll G 38 

People's College and Junior 

High School 173-177 

characteristics 170 

courses 170, 172 

Philadelphia 39 

Philippine Islands, plan 32 

Physical education 80-84 

Pomona, 

effect Jr. H. S. on enrollment. 13 

elections in grades 45 

history courses 97 

Jr. H. S. plan 42 

vocational guidance 16 

Population sufficient to maintain 

Jr. H. S 181 

Practical information 143 

Program defined 77 

Promotion by subject 1 



